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The Reviews

Evolution of Social Insect Colonies: Sex Allocation and Kin Selection
by Ross H. Crozier and Pekka Pamilo

ISBN = Pbk 0 19 854942 3, Hbk 0 19 854942 1
Price = Pbk £20.95, Hbk £42.50
Published = 1996
Review written = 8th/August/1998
306 pages

Social insects are a popular subject with publishers, as well as with scientists at the moment, and there are a number of books currently on the market. They all look at the subject from a slightly different perspective, though there is a reasonable amount of overlap between some of them. Part of the reason for the popularity of eusocial insects is the facility with which they can be manipulated and observed. This makes them excellent subjects for testing ecological and evolutionary theories. There is also the inherent fascination of their sociality, so like ours in someways and so unlike it in others. Though it may seem to some that social insects have an overly large slice of the literature pie, there are many aspects of insect ecology struggling for any voice at all, it must be recognised that the answer is really more books on insects all around. Compared with birds for instance even social insects are poorly represented.

This is a very competent book, which in remarkably few chapters discusses all the major aspects of the evolution of sociality in insects. It is not a book to sit down and read from cover to cover, and I feel few outside of the university system will find it of value. However to undergraduates, and graduates studying social insect colonies, particularly the Hymenoptera, it will be very useful. The discussions take the reader to the edge of our current (1995) knowledge of the factors involved and the numerous tables supply a large resource of information. Those who are uncertain of their mathematics will find this work full of equations but the authors have done their best to keep them to a minimum and to the mathematically minded, and those interested in modelling their inclusion will be more than welcome.

As I said about "Cooperation in Animals" some of the books in this series are better educational tools than others because of their construction and clarity not because of their content. These tend to be those in which a detailed study of a single organism is used to elucidate the pertinent facts relevent to the subject being discussed. I hope the editors will consider this aspect of the series production in future volumes.

Chapter 1. Introduction; Chapter 2 Inclusive fitness and sex allocation; Chapter 3 The evolution of eusociality in insects; Chapter 4 Evolution of colony characteristics; Chapter 5 Intra-colony conflicts over sex-allocation; Chapter 6 Colony-level variation of sex ratios. References (38 pages); Species Index; Subject Index. Recommended

Cooperation among Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective
by Lee Alan Dugatkin

ISBN = Pbk 0 19 508622 8, Hbk 0 19 508621 X
Price = Pbk £17.95, Hbk £45.00
Published = 1997
Review written = 17th/May/1998
221 pages

It may seem unfair to criticise an author for what he has left out of a book when in the preface he has admitted that much has had to be left out and apologized to anyone put out by this. However if I am to be honest in my review I have to wonder at the wisdom of including a chapter on cooperation in eusocial insects and not mentioning the many other examples of cooperation that occur in the insect and arachnid world. For instance though cooperation among insects such as Dung Beetles and Burying Beetles is well researched it is poorly represented outside of the original papers and this would have been an excellent opportunity to bring this information into the light. Eusocial insects on the other hand are well represented in the literature, including two other books in this series. Even if the author though it imperative to include a chapter on the eusocial insects, and they are fascinating, this book is not so large that an extra chapter would have seemed excessive.

Though I found the other chapters fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed reading them, particularly the one on fishes, I am not a vertebrate biologist and can not offer serious criticism of them. Undoubtedly they will help sell the book because undergraduates are as prone to the 'Cute and Cuddly' syndrome as anyone else, so perhaps it will be good for insects to be there with the mammals and birds, but see above.

The unfortunate thing about this series is that the first volume I read in it was "Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution" by Davies. This was, and still is the best scientific read I have ever come across. It was so good in fact that I went out and bought 3 of the 4 other volumes of the series then published. They were not as good unfortunately. Later I read "Sexual Selection and the Barn Swallow" by Moller which has been the next best in the series, of those which I have read. The common denominator for the best of this series seems to be an author writing about one species and having a time series of study to use to bring out the concepts they are teaching. Those not written like this are far less readable, far more like ordinary text books, and hence much worse at getting the message across.

Still, back to "Cooperation Among Animals". There is a lot of fascinating information brought together in this volume and it will be of great value to graduates and undergraduates for years to come. However as I have inferred already I can not help thinking that it would have been a far better book if the author had restricted himself to co-operation in fish and used the tail of his own research to bring out the relevent theoretical concepts, after all the world is not short on books on social insects, or on cooperation in birds and or mammals. It is short on works on cooperation in fish and on readable treaties on the evolutionary aspects of cooperation. It contains chapters on : Historical Perspectives on Cooperative Behaviour; Theoretical Perspectives on the Evolution of Cooperation; Cooperation in Fishes; Cooperation in Birds; Cooperation in Mammals I: Nonprimates; Cooperation in Mammals II: Nonhuman Primates; Cooperation in Insects; To the Future. Recommended

Invertebrate Surveys for Conservation
by T. R. New

ISBN = Pbk; 0 19 850011 4, Hbk 0 19 850012 2
Price = Pbk £18.50, Hbk £40.00
Published = March 1998
Review written = 17th/May/1998
240 pages

Terrence New is an internationally recognised expert in the field of invertebrate conservation. Fortunately he can also write in a coherent and readable style without sacrificing the important messages he has to deliver. This is a book which has long needed to be written because there are a lot of people in the conservation industry who need to read it. So if you are in anyway interested in or working towards the conservation of nature, particularly if you are involved in organising, planning, commissioning, financing or carrying out surveys that include invertebrates read this book.

My own most recent experience of conservation survey work where 4 experts were called in, one to deal with bats (18 UK species), one for Bryophytes (1,000 UK species), one for Angiosperms (1,500 UK species) and one for invertebrates (30 000 UK species) strongly confirms the need for this book to be read.

"Invertebrate Surveys for Conservation is a comprehensive practical guide to the ecological methods used to survey invertebrate animals in terrestrial, fresh water, and marine environments. It describes how to select particular taxonomic groups for study, how to collect and analyse samples, and how to set priorities for protection in the face of limited resources. Line drawings of apparatus, tables of survey examples and methods of specimen treatment and sample analysis are augmented by a substantial list of references to provide students and practitioners with an accessible introduction to practical invertebrate conservation" Having said that I feel that it could have used a clearer set of definitions of Flagship, Umbrella, Keystone and Indicator species, though inevitably some things have to be left out and overall the author has done a commendable job of presenting the important points relating to 'invertebrate conservation surveys' obviously a huge topic given the range and diversity of species involved.

It contains chapters on :- Invertebrates in conservation; Approaches to invertebrate surveys: posing the question; Sampling invertebrates: terrestrial environments; Sampling invertebrates: aquatic environments; Assessing use of sampling methods; Processing and interpreting invertebrate samples; Taxonomy and target groups for conservation studies; Monitoring and evaluating status; Alternative approaches to species-focused conservation; Involving people in invertebrate conservation; References; Index.

All in all an excellent addition to the worlds literature.Highly recommended

Blue Magpies Nest: Blue Magpies Nest is a collection of essays and poetry suitable for all the family to read, quarranteed to amuse and stimulate you.