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.

Robert K. Vander Meer is a research chemist with the USDA/ARS. Michael D. Breed is professor of environmental population and organismic biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mark L. Winston is professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University. Karl E. Espelie is professor of entomology at the University of Georgia at Athens.

1. Introduction: Theory and Empirical Results in Sociogenetics, 2. Genetic Structure, Division of Labor, and the Evolution of Insect Societies, 3. The Genetics of Colony-Level Selection, 4. Genetic Basis for Division of Labor in an Insect Society, 5. Ecological Determinants of Social Evolution, 6. Measuring Inclusive Fitness in Social Wasps, 7. Genetic and Social Changes Associated with Ant Speciation, 8. Reproductive and Social Structure in Polygynous Fire Ant Colonies, 9. Incompatibility Between Colonies of Acacia Ants: Genetic Models and Experimental Results, 10. Evolutionary Genetics of a Primitively Eusocial Halictine Bee.