About us
The study of social insects has a long and rich history, and is associated with some of the classic papers in behaviour and evolution. From Darwin's dilemma regarding the evolution of sterile castes, to resolving key mechanisms that underpin their bewildering self-organization, to managing their economic impact in agriculture and as pests, social insects remain a pillar of biological research in the post-genomic era.
The Australasian Section of IUSSI aims to bring the Australian and New Zealand based social insect community together into a single forum on a regular basis keeping in-line with meetings of other IUSSI sections.
Our journal:
Insectes Sociaux
- Members of the Australian Chapter of the IUSSI will receive Insectes Sociaux for a reduced price. Click here to find out more.
Annual newsletters
- March 2011 (pdf)
- March 2010 (pdf)
Past meetings
Our first meeting was held in December 2005 (see below). Our second meeting was held in conjunction with the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASSAB) in April 2007. We met in Brisbane at the University of Queensland on April 3 2009 and in Copenhagen in 2010, during the XVI IUSSI International Congress.
The first scientific meeting of the IUSSI - Australian section was held 4-9 December 2005.
As advertised in Apidologie , April-June 2005 Issue, a symposium entitled "Social insects down under: contributions from Australia to the global understanding of social life" was organized by the Australian Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI-AU). The symposium was held in conjunction with the Invertebrates2005 conference in Canberra, and was a great success!
A list of speakers and their titles are presented below. The conference programme can be downloaded here. Skip to "Wednesday 7 December" for start of the relevant symposium.
All for now…
Graham Thompson (gthompson@usyd.edu.au) Madeleine Beekman (madeleine.beekman@sydney.edu.au) Ben Oldroyd (benjamin.oldroyd@sydney.edu.au)
List of speakers:
- Plenary Speaker Phase change in locusts: from neurones to populations Stephen Simpson
- Social construction of silken shelters: first steps towards understanding hemipteran use of silk Murray Fletcher
- The impact of Kleptoparasitic Invasions on the evolution of gall size in the Australian Acacia Thrips Tom Chapman
- Downunder, eusocial and living in trees Deborah Kent
- Factors Affecting Fine-Scale Genetic Structure in Allodapine Bees Andrew Beattie
- Comparative analysis of social traits in the honeybee genus, Apis Ross Crozier
- Social parasites in allodapine bees: malevolent ghosts, not queen usurpers Jaclyn Smith
- Strategies for Maximising Alate Production in Coptotermes lacteus and Nasutitermes exitiosus Mary Myerscough
- Clever chewing: termites get information from their noisy nibbling Theodore Evans
- Exploring the Cognitive Capability of the Honeybee Shaowu Zhang
- Effects of Probiotics and RNAi on immunity genes in adult honeybees Helge Schluns
- Molecular basis of worker sterility in a social insect Graham Thompson
- Thermoregulation and the effects of rearing temperature on developmental stability and learning and memory in the honey bee, Apis mellifera Julia Jones
- Life history and behaviour shape honey bee genome evolution Charles Claudianos
- The Genetics of Hygienic Behaviour of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) Peter Oxley
- Asian honey bees: biology, conservation and human interactions Ben Oldroyd
- Pervasive positive selection on social insect immune genes Ross Crozier
- Differential response of honeybee (Apis mellifera) genotypes to changes in stimuli for generalists tasks Nadine Chapman
- How does an informed minority of scouts guide a honey bee swarm as it flies to its new home? Madeleine Beekman