Insect Behavior From Mechanisms to Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences

About this book

Insects display a staggering diversity of behaviors. Studying these systems provides insights into a wide range of ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral questions including the genetics of behavior, phenotypic plasticity, chemical communication, and the evolution of life-history traits. This accessible text offers a new approach that provides the reader with the necessary theoretical and conceptual foundations, at different hierarchical levels, to understand insect behavior. Insect Behavior is divided into three main sections: mechanisms, ecological and evolutionary consequences, and applied issues. The final section places the preceding chapters within a framework of current threats to human survival – climate change, disease, and food security – before providing suggestions and insights as to how we can utilize an understanding of insect behavior to control and/or ameliorate them. Each chapter provides a concise, authoritative review of the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundations of each topic.

Contents

Foreword, John Alcock
1: Introduction, Daniel González-Tokman, Isaac González-Santoyo, and Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
2: The genetics of reproductive behavior in insects, John Hunt, James Rapkin, and Clarissa House
3: Neurobiology of insect behavior, Anne C. von Philipsborn
4: The role of hormones in insect behavior, H. Frederik Nijhout and Emily Laub
5: Phenotypic plasticity and insect behavior, Karen D. Williams and Marla B. Sokolowski
6: Habitat selection and territoriality, Darrell J. Kemp
7: Long-range migration and orientation behavior, Don R. Reynolds and Jason W. Chapman
8: Insect feeding behavior, Stephen J. Simpson, Carlos Ribeiro, and Daniel González-Tokman
9: Anti-predator behavior, Thomas N. Sherratt and Changku Kang
10: Chemical communication, Bernard D. Roitberg
11: Visual communication, James C. O'Hanlon, Thomas E. White, and Kate D.L. Umbers
12: Acoustic communication, Heiner Römer
13: Reproductive behavior, Rachel Olzer, Rebecca L. Ehrlich, Justa L. Heinen-Kay, Jessie Tanner, and Marlene Zuk
14: Parental care, Glauco Machado and Stephen T. Trumbo
15: Insect sociality, Jennifer Fewell and Patrick Abbot
16: Personality and behavioral syndromes in insects and spiders, Carl N. Keiser, James L.L. Lichtenstein, Colin M. Wright, Gregory T. Chism, and Jonathan N. Pruitt
17: Insect cognition and learning, Reuven Dukas
18: The influence of parasites on insect behavior, Pedro F. Vale, Jonathon A. Siva-Jothy, André Morrill, and Mark R. Forbes
19: Behavioral, plastic, and evolutionary responses to a changing world, Wolf U. Blanckenhorn
20: Behavior-based control of insect crop pests, Sandra A. Allan
21: Behavior-based control of arthropod vectors: the case of mosquitoes, ticks and Chagasic bugs, Ana E. Gutiérrez-Cabrera, Giovanni Benelli, Thomas Walker, José Antonio De Fuentes-Vicente, and Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
22: Insect behavior in conservation, Tim R. New

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Biography

Alex Córdoba-Aguilar completed his PhD at Sheffield University and has been a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México since 2003. Daniel González-Tokman did his doctoral studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and has been a researcher at the Instituto de Ecología, A. C. since 2015. Isaac González-Santoyo did his doctoral studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and has been a lecturer in the same university since 2015.