The History and Scope of Insect Behavior

Abstract

An overview of the insect world reveals two paradoxical characteristics: great diversity and equally great constancy. On the one hand, there are over one million named insect species, with estimates ranging up to three million. How can such a great diversity be explained? Study of this basic question has become the domain of evolutionary biology. On the other hand, each kind of organism tends to reoccur in virtually the same form with the same basic features for generation after generation. Why do they tend to show such constancy, such resistance to change? The study of this question, in turn, is largely the domain of genetics. Together, these two great branches of biology—evolution and genetics—form a powerful tool for the investigation of nearly every aspect of life. This introductory chapter deals briefly with their application to the study of behavior and then turns to an overview of behavior as a field of study to provide a perspective for the chapters that follow.