The Superorganism: The Beauty Elegance And Strangeness Of Insect Societies

Bert Holldobler, Honorary Curator in Entomology and University Research Professor Emeritus Edward O Wilson, Edward O Wilson

W. W. Norton & Company, 2009 - Nature - 522 pages

The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants render the extraordinary lives of the social insects in this visually spectacular volume.

The Superorganism promises to be one of the most important scientific works published in this decade. Coming eighteen years after the publication of The Ants, this new volume expands our knowledge of the social insects (among them, ants, bees, wasps, and termites) and is based on remarkable research conducted mostly within the last two decades. These superorganisms—a tightly knit colony of individuals, formed by altruistic cooperation, complex communication, and division of labor—represent one of the basic stages of biological organization, midway between the organism and the entire species. The study of the superorganism, as the authors demonstrate, has led to important advances in our understanding of how the transitions between such levels have occurred in evolution and how life as a whole has progressed from simple to complex forms. Ultimately, this book provides a deep look into a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a very few.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - wildbill - LibraryThing

[The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies] This was a fascinating book that is definitely in my top five for 2013. It was written by research scientists about the ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - AlCracka - LibraryThing

Reading for the "Altruism" theme at the Bookish club. (It makes perfect sense, shut up.) This is a deeply intimidating book - 500 big pages full of big words - but it's been really interesting when I've had the gumption to focus on it. Yeah, I said gumption.

Contents

• II: 3
• IV: 5
• V: 6
• VI: 7
• VII: 8
• VIII: 10
• IX: 15
• XI: 16
• XII: 24
• XIII: 29
• XIV: 31
• XV: 42
• XVII: 51
• XVIII: 53
• XX: 58
• XXI: 60
• XXII: 69
• XXIII: 70
• XXIV: 71
• XXV: 73
• XXVI: 75
• XXVII: 77
• XXVIII: 79
• XXIX: 83
• XXX: 84
• XXXI: 85
• XXXII: 89
• XXXIII: 93
• XXXIV: 97
• XXXV: 103
• XXXVI: 116
• XXXVII: 117
• XXXVIII: 120
• XXXIX: 125
• XL: 129
• XLI: 136
• XLII: 139
• XLIII: 147
• XLIV: 152
• XLV: 159
• XLVI: 164
• XLVII: 167
• XLVIII: 169
• XLIX: 178
• L: 183
• LI: 206
• LII: 214
• LIII: 218
• LIV: 221
• LV: 229
• LVI: 231
• LVII: 235
• LVIII: 247
• LIX: 251
• LX: 252
• LXI: 259
• LXII: 267
• LXIII: 270
• LXIV: 273
• LXV: 275
• LXVI: 288
• LXVII: 299
• LXVIII: 301
• LXIX: 309
• LXX: 313
• LXXI: 315
• LXXII: 318
• LXXIII: 320
• LXXIV: 322
• LXXV: 328
• LXXVI: 330
• LXXVII: 333
• LXXIX: 334
• LXXX: 336
• LXXXI: 355
• LXXXII: 364
• LXXXIII: 366
• LXXXIV: 373
• LXXXV: 376
• LXXXVI: 378
• LXXXVII: 380
• LXXXVIII: 382
• LXXXIX: 394
• XC: 397
• XCII: 398
• XCIII: 404
• XCIV: 407
• XCV: 408
• XCVI: 411
• XCVII: 412
• XCVIII: 426
• XCIX: 430
• C: 439
• CI: 445
• CII: 449
• CIII: 454
• CIV: 456
• CV: 457
• CVI: 463
• CVII: 469
• CIX: 470
• CX: 473
• CXI: 479
• CXII: 481
• CXIII: 501
• CXIV: 503
• CXV: 505
• CXVI: 515

About the author

Bert Hölldobler is Foundation Professor at Arizona State University and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. He lives in Arizona and Germany.

Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson was a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lived with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Superorganism: The Beauty Elegance And Strangeness Of Insect Societies
• Authors: Bert Holldobler, Honorary Curator in Entomology and University Research Professor Emeritus Edward O Wilson, Edward O Wilson
• Illustrated by: Margaret Cecile Nelson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009
• ISBN: 0393067041, 9780393067040
• Length: 522 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Animals / Insects & Spiders; Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Developmental Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Entomology