11/11: Diversity, plasticity and evolution of communication in insect societies (part II)

ORGANISERS: Lucas Pietro Casacci a, Alessandro Cini b, Volker Nehring c

a University of Turin, Italy; b University College London, UK; c University of Freiburg, Germany 

SUMMARY:

Communication plays an important role in organizing the cooperation within insect societies, and intuitively the complexity of communication increases with the complexity of the societies. Pheromones and other semiochemicals have always been assumed to be the major cues of communication because nests are typically dark and crowded environments. In recent years, however, new evidence has suggested that also visual and vibroacoustic communication is widely used by social insects, and the evidence supporting a correlation between communicative and social complexity is not unequivocal. This has generated many questions about the plasticity and evolution of communication in insect societies. To what extent are the different sensory channels used in different taxa, and under which circumstances do they integrate? What messages are conveyed, and how? To what degree are these complex communication landscapes variable between and within species, are they plastic under changing social and environmental conditions, and how far is the social form predicting or predicted by communication?  This symposium aims at discussing these aspects of social insect communication, spanning the different sensory channels and ranging from primitively social to eusocial species. The goal is to give room for all those interested in speaking, and listening, about the diversity, plasticity and evolution of social insect communication.

PROGRAMME (London time, pm):