Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Foreword / by Bert Hölldobler -- Commentary / by Edward O. Wilson -- Introduction: what's in a name? -- The ecology of social evolution -- Dermaptera: earwig mothers -- Orthoptera: hopper herds and cricket families -- Embiidina: the web spinners -- Mantodea and Phasmatodea: mantids and walkingsticks -- Blattodea: cockroaches that care -- Psocoptera and Zoraptera: barklice and angel insects -- Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aphidoidea: samurai aphids -- Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: treehopper herds -- Hemiptera: Heteroptera 1, Terrestrial bugs -- Hemiptera: Heteroptera 2, Aquatic bugs -- Thysanoptera: communes and family fortresses -- Coleoptera: beetle societies 1, Dung, rove, and carrion beetles and their allies -- Coleoptera: beetle societies 2, Bark and ambrosia beetles and other weevils -- Coleoptera: beetle societies 3, Leaf, fungus, carrion, darkling, and whirligig beetles and their allies -- Lepidoptera: social caterpillars 1, Moths -- Lepidoptera: social caterpillars 2, More moths, and social butterflies -- Hymenoptera, Symphyta: sawfliy societies -- Other social arthropods: arachnids, centipedes, millipedes, and crustaceans -- Coda: sociality in an Appalachian spring.