The other insect societies: overview and new directions

The diversity of societies and forms of social interaction across the Arthropoda is commensurate with the great taxonomic diversity within this pylum. Social evolution research has, however, largely focused on a small subset of social forms; namely, those deemed to be 'eusocial' - groups exhibiting overlapping generations, cooperative brood care, and reproductive division of labor. Here I provide a brief overview of the 'other', non-eusocial, societies of insects and allies, defining the main social traits of interest and summarizing recent work. Four active and emerging fields of inquiry in the other insect societies are discussed.