From the content: Aculeata: phylogeny and classification -- african honey bees -- Allodapini -- Allomones -- Aneuretus simoni -- bees: ecological roles -- bees: phylogeny and classification -- brood care -- brood-stimulation theory [in army ants] -- bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) and Dinoponera -- cape honey bee -- carpenter ants (Camponotus) -- caste -- caste differentiation: ants -- caste differentiation: genetic and epigenetic factors -- dacetine ants -- dampwood termites (Archotermopsidae) -- defensive strategies -- Diacamma -- Dolichoderinae -- drywood termites (Kalotermitidae) -- Ectatomma -- eastern hive bee (Apis cerana) -- eusociality -- exocrine glands -- extra-floral nectaries -- fire ants (Solenopsis in part -- Foraminini -- Formicinae -- fossil social insects -- fungus-gardening ants -- .

A comprehensive, multi-author treatise on the social insects of the world, with some auxiliary attention to such adjacent topics as subsocial insects and social arachnids. The work is to serve as a very convenient, yet authoritative reference work on the biology and systematics of social insects of the world. This is a project of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), the worldwide organizing body for the scientific study of social insects. .