IUSSI Australian Section International Union for the Study of Social Insects

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 (mbeekman@bio.usyd.edu.au)
Ben Oldroyd (boldroyd@bio.usyd.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

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