The roots of swarm intelligence are deeply embedded in the biological study of self-
organized behaviors in social insects. From the routing of traffic in telecommunication …

Division of labor is an emergent and dynamic process that intimately mingles social
dynamics and individual behavior. Individuals engage in work, and social interactions …

In this book, the biologist Raghavendra Gadagkar focuses on the single species he has
worked on throughout his career. Found throughout southern India, Ropalidia marginata is a …

A review of the taxonomy, biology and distribution of social wasps belonging to the
subfamilies Vespinae, Polistinae and Stenogastrinae of the following 7 countries: India …

Social insect colonies are often considered to be highly efficient collective systems, with
division of labor at the root of their ecological success. However, in many species, a large …

Social insect colonies are highly successful, self-organized complex systems. Surprisingly
however, most social insect colonies contain large numbers of highly inactive workers …

Optimality theory predicts the maximization of productivity in social insect colonies, but many
inactive workers are found in ant colonies. Indeed, the low short-term productivity of ant …

We expect that human organizations and cooperative animal groups should be optimized for
collective performance. This often involves the allocation of different individuals to different …

Social insect colonies are commonly thought of as highly organized and efficient complex
systems, yet high levels of worker inactivity are common. Although consistently inactive …

Social insect colonies are models for complex systems with sophisticated, efficient, and
robust allocation of workers to necessary tasks. Despite this, it is commonly reported that …