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. The book 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.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of fundamental concepts of animal behavior as they relate to insects. Considerably updated and expanded, this new edition includes 26 case studies, as well as 45 new color plates and 173 figures (over 40% of them new) with detailed legends that add richness to the well-written, accessible text.

Interest in insect behavior is growing rapidly, as reflected both in courses devoted fully to the topic and in its inclusion in general biology, ecology, invertebrate zoology, and animal behavior--as well as general entomology--curricula. Instructors and students find that insects are in many ways uniquely suitable animals for behavioral study: the

Chemicals Controlling Insect Behavior consists of papers originally presented at the Symposium on Chemicals Controlling Insect Behavior at the 157th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 16, 1969. Organized into seven chapters, this book presents information on insect pheromones, insect defense mechanisms, and other insect attractants and repellent. It specifically describes the sex pheromones of the Lepidoptera, the attractant pheromones of Coleoptera, and the boll weevil sex attractant. The chemical basis of insect sociality and arthropod defensive secretions are also explained. Lastly, the practice in programs within the USDA relating toinsect attractants and repellents is discussed. This book will serve as groundwork for even greater and more rapid progress in this field of interest. It will be useful to chemists, biochemists, biologists, entomologists, and others working to control insect pests.

Insects are ideal subjects for neurophysiological studies. This classic volume relates the activities of nerve cells to the activities of insects, something that had never been attempted when the book first appeared in 1963. In several elegant experiments, Roeder shows how stimulus and behavior are related through the nervous system.

In this book, 'state of art' situation in patterns of behaviour is presented by the authors, each with expertise in respective fields on diverse aspects such as pollination, predation and parasitism, forest and agricultural pests, besides the dynamics of aquatic insects in general and dragonflies in particular, in addition to insect vectors of diseases. The need for an appreciation of the differentiation processes controlling growth and development of plant galls has been adequately emphasised, these galls representing highly regulated growth manifestations of plants, ensuring nutrition and shelter for the insects concerned. Behavioural shifts of insects due to current climatic changes and their implications in insect conservation and control are also highlighted. This book will be relevant to the undergraduate and particularly graduate students taking courses in insect ecology and evolution, conservation biology and environmental management as well as to committed researchers in these fields in addition to conservation practitioners eager to have a comprehensive background of the multifaceted aspects of insect behavioural dynamics.

Control of Insect Behavior by Natural Products presents papers on new biochemical approaches to pest control. The book presents articles on pheromone research with stored-product Coleoptera; some general considerations of insects responses to the chemicals in food plants; and pheromones of the honey bee. The text also includes papers on several substances responsible for the feeding behavior and growth of the silkworm larva; the sensory responses of Phytophagus lepidoptera to chemical and tactile stimuli; and the use of volatile organic sulfur compounds as insect attractants with special reference to host selection. Insect anti-feedants in plants; a house fly attractant in the mushroom; and studies on sex pheromones of the stored grain moths are also considered. The book also demonstrates articles on the electrophysiological investigation of insect olfaction; and host attractants for the rice weevil and the cheese mite. Entomologists, biologists, chemists, and people involved in the research of pest control will find the book invaluable.

This book documents the latest accomplishments and technology relating to pheromone use. It contains listing of pheromones which provides an up-to-date background of material to help bring both the advanced and the new worker abreast of the rapidly growing pheromone field.

The "intelligence" of traditional artificial intelligence systems is notoriously narrow and inflexible--incapable of adapting to the constantly changing circumstances of the real world. Although traditional artificial intelligence systems can be successful in narrowly prescribed domains, they are inappropriate for dynamic, complex domains, such as autonomous robot navigation.**This book proposes an alternative methodology for designing intelligent systems based on a model of intelligence as adaptive behavior. The author describes an experiment in computational neuroethology--the computer modeling of neuronal control of behavior--in which the nervous system for an artificial insect is modeled. The experiment demonstrates that simple, complete intelligent agents are able to cope with complex, dynamic environments--suggesting that adaptive models of intelligence, based on biological bases of adaptive behavior, may prove to be very useful in the design of intelligent, autonomous systems. - Provides a lucid critique of traditional artificial intelligence research programs - Presents new methodology for the construction autonomous agents, which has implications for mobile robotics - Of interest to researchers in a variety of fields: artificial intelligence, neural networks, robotics, cognitive science, and neuroscience