Insect Defenses: Adaptive Mechanisms and Strategies of Prey and Predators

Abstract

Chapter titles: The evolution of cryptic coloration; the evolution of aposematism; sexual selection and predation -- balancing reproductive and survival needs; prey selection in web-building spiders and evolution of prey defenses; predator-prey interactions, informational complexity, and the origins of intelligence; avian predatory behavior and prey distribution; avoiding the hunt -- primary defenses of lepidopteran caterpillars; phenology as a defense -- a time to die, a time to live; the sensory ecology of moths and bats -- global lessons in staying alive; startle as an anti-predator mechamism, with special reference to the underwing moths, Catocala; collective security -- aggregation by insects as a defense; allomones -- chemicals for defense; recycling plant natural prroducts for insect defense; hymenopteran venoms -- striving toward the ultimate defense against vertebrates; holding the fort -- colony defense in some primitively social wasps.