Abstract

STARR, Christopher K.. A few things I would like to know about social insects. Rev. Colomb. Entomol. [online]. 2025, vol.51, n.1, e12897.  Epub May 30, 2025. ISSN 0120-0488.  https://doi.org/10.25100/socolen.v51i1.12897.

Looking back over 50 years of studying social insects, this article identifies eight outstanding problems in social insect biology: 1) Can life cycles of individual organisms serve as a reliable model for the colony cycle?; 2) Does the production of workers and sexuals in social hymenopterans fit the bang-bang model?; 3) Do females in social hymenopterans have a smaller individual behavioural repertory than those of solitary hymenopterans?; 4) Is memory in termite workers and soldiers limited to the sensory level?; 5) Do some social wasps and/or bees demonstrate coordinated colony defense?; 6) Is there an induced defense in termite colonies at the level of caste proportions?; 7) Are social wasps passing through a period of global population decrease?; and 8) Is there a relationship between the level of primary production in the habitat and the proportion of social species among the insects?

Keywords : Bang-bang model; colony cycle; induced defense; social bee; social wasp; termites.

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