| Social Caterpillars |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT SOCIAL CATERPILLARS | |
| lepidoptera | |
| animal communication | |
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The most behaviorally sophisticated of the insect societies are found among the ants, termites, bees, and wasps. While these insects are technically classified as eusocial insects they are commonly referred to simply as the social insects. In this scheme of classification, other non-eusocial, gregarious species of insects are referred to as presocial, subsocial, quasisocial, or in some other manner that has the unfortunate consequence of suggesting that are not quite social. Yet a significant number of insects species that do not possess the defining criteria of eusociality are by any other standard of classification clearly social and it is in this sense of the term, that employed by zoologist in general, that larval aggregates of moths, butterflies and sawflies are considered social insects. The sibling societies of caterpillars exhibit collective behaviors that vary from simple interactions to more complex forms of cooperation. The collective behaviors of social caterpillars falls into five general categories: collective and cooperative foraging, group defense against predators and parasitoids, shelter building, thermoregulation and substrate silking to enhance steadfastness Collective and cooperative foraging Group Defense against Predators and Parasitoids Shelter building Thermoregulation Substrate silking to facilitate steadfastness References Costa, J. T. and N. E. Pierce. 1997. Social evolution in the Lepidoptera: ecological context and communication in larval societies. In J. C. Choe and B. J. Crespi (eds.) The evolution of social behavior in insects and arachnids. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 407-422. Costa, J. T. 1997. Caterpillars as social insects. Amer. Scientist 85: 150-159. Fitzgerald, T. D. and J. T. Costa. 1999. Collective behavior in social caterpillars. In C. Detrain, J. L. Deneubourg, and J. M. Pasteels (eds.) Information processing in social insects. Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, 379-400. Fitzgerald, T. D. 1993. Social caterpillars. In N. E. Stamp and T. M. Casey (eds.) Caterpillars: ecological and evolutionary constraints on foraging. Chapman and Hall, New York, 372-403. Fitzgerald, T. D. 1995. The Tent Caterpillars. Cornell University Press. Fitzgerald, T. D. and S. C. Peterson. 1988. Cooperative foraging and communication in social caterpillars. Bioscience 38: 20-25. Ruf, C. and K. Fiedler. 2000. Thermal gains through collective metabolic heat production in social caterpillars of Eriogaster lanestris. Naturwissenschaften 87: 193-196. http://web.cortland.edu/fitzgerald/index.html |
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