Nuevo libro del Dr. Alfredo Peretti sobre selección sexual en artrópodos

The first five chapters of this edited volume describe the physiological and genomic basis for social behavior in honey bees, bumble bees, vespid wasps, termites, and aphids. The following two chapters review specific potential mechanisms underlying insect social behavior—neural processing of reward and epigenetics. The final three chapters place the empirical discoveries described in the earlier chapters within a broader theoretical framework. These chapters serve as an excellent reminder that many of the distinguishing features of social insect biology have important effects on genome evolution, and thus require careful interpretation of results obtained using typical evolutionary genetic methods or genotype-phenotype association studies. It is apropos that the volume concludes with a chapter aimed at drawing connections between the tools enabled by sociogenomics and predictions stemming from an earlier milestone in the field of social evolution—formalization of kin selection theory with Hamilton’s rule. Each of these chapters stands on its own as a comprehensive review, but the strength of reading this volume as a collection lies in the common themes that emerge. For example, common genetic and en-docrine pathways show up in each of the taxa-specific chapters, but with a new twist in each case. This insight that common pathways are associated with social behavior in different species, but with variation in function across lineages, is given theoretical backing in the later chapters and provides defense for the omission of chapters focused on key taxonomic groups, such as ants and incipiently eusocial bees. This book is highly recommended for all academics interested in the genomic and physiological underpinnings of behavior among social insects. Those new to the field, especially incoming graduate students, will find this is an excellent primer that places the most recent findings in a historical and theoretical context. Those who are active in the field will find in this volume an excellent opportunity to reflect on how far we have come, how we got here, and the next steps forward.