Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Behavioral ecology
- 2 Behavior, mating systems and sexual selection
- 3 Social insects: the evolution and ecological consequences of sociality
- Part III Species interactions
- Part IV Population ecology
- Part V Food webs and communities
- Part VI Broad patterns in nature
- Glossary
- References
- Author Index
- Taxonomic Index
- Subject Index
- Plate section
- References
2 - Behavior, mating systems and sexual selection
from Part II - Behavioral ecology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Behavioral ecology
- 2 Behavior, mating systems and sexual selection
- 3 Social insects: the evolution and ecological consequences of sociality
- Part III Species interactions
- Part IV Population ecology
- Part V Food webs and communities
- Part VI Broad patterns in nature
- Glossary
- References
- Author Index
- Taxonomic Index
- Subject Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Behavior can be defined as anything that an individual does during its life, involving action in response to a stimulus. Eating behavior is stimulated by hunger; sleeping or resting behavior is in response to fatigue; escape is a response to attack and reproductive behavior is in response to physiological urges and stimulation by members of the opposite sex. Throughout the life of an individual insect it is behaving constantly in one way or another, making behavior a large and important subject.
Many behaviors are in response to external stimuli, part of the environment, making them ecologically relevant, and behavioral ecology is an important part of ecological understanding. Understanding much of behavior results from the study of how species are adapted to the problems of survival and reproduction, and how natural selection shapes the trajectory of a lineage through the costs and benefits, the opportunities and constraints, of any particular genetic and phenotypic change in that lineage.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Insect EcologyBehavior, Populations and Communities, pp. 27 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011