This book is the first review of the scientific literature on the Africanized honey bee. The African subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata (formerly adansonii) was introduced into South America in 1956 with the intent of cross-breeding it with other subspecies of bees already present in Brazil to obtain a honey bee better adapted to tropical conditions. Shortly after its introduction, some of the African stock became established in the feral population around Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spread rapidly through Brazil. It has since migrated through most of the neotropics, displacing and/or...

The contributor’s primary goal in organizing this book was to initiate a synthesis of thought on how genetics structures the behavior of individual animals that live within complex social systems. To do this they have brought together leading theorists and empiricists who apply genetics to the study of eusocial insect evolution.