Insect Behavior: From Mechanisms to Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences

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.

Alex Cordoba-Aguilar, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Daniel Gonzalez-Tokman, Instituto de Ecologia, Mexico, Isaac Gonzalez-Santoyo, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Alex Cordoba-Aguilar completed his PhD at Sheffield University and has been a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico since 2003.

Daniel Gonzalez-Tokman did his doctoral studies at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and has been a researcher at the Instituto de Ecologia, A. C. since 2015.

Isaac Gonzalez-Santoyo did his doctoral studies at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and has been a lecturer in the same university since 2015.