Entomology 333: Social Insects
Spring, 2008. Lecture: 155 Jennings Hall, MWF 11:30pm-12:18pm
Recitication: One, 1-Hour Period Per Week in Jennings Hall 2xx
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, June 6, 11:30-1:18, in Jennings 155
For more than sixty million years, ants, bees, wasps, and termites have dominated
the world by organizing labor. They are the principal predators, scavengers,
pollinators, and movers of earth in most terrestrial ecosystems. A colony of social
insects behaves as if it has a communal intelligence much greater than that of the
individual workers. Yet, these animals have no time clock, no job foreman, no
blueprint, nor do they even know who their partners are. How can these insects
achieve this? We will explore the diversity of social insects with an eye toward the
rules they use to produce the most successful societies on Earth.
Professor: Dr. John W. Wenzel, Department of Entomology. Offices: Museum of Biological
Diversity #1100, 1315 Kinnear Road (West Campus). Dr. Wenzel maintains a satellite office in
Aronoff Labs 484, with office hours in Aronoff, Wednesday, 10:00am-11:00am, or by
appointment. Telephone (West Campus) 292-1995, email
[email protected]. In general,
questions outside class, or concerns regarding your grades should be directed to your TA.
Because Dr. Wenzel's main office is on West Campus and the class is taught on Main Campus, he
is often away from his phone and email for many hours a day, so be patient when waiting for
replies.
Course Materials:
Required: A Primer of Social Insect Biology, available at UniPrint. This book is
composed of original text by Dr. Wenzel (designated as OSU, below) and selected
readings from other sources, reprinted with permission from various sources.
Recommended or optional reading listed in italics in the syllabus is available at
the BPL library (corner of 12th Ave and Cannon). These are all from E O Wilson's : Insect
Societies, and are supplied for students who are interested in the topic. Material found
only in these readings will not be examined for a grade. Internet Access: CARMEN and
email are also necessary to be an active participant in the course. You must activate your
OSU email account to have access to CARMEN. The Carmen URL is
http://carmen.osu.edu and Entomology 333 should be listed under My Courses on your
Carmen homepage. The username to logon is your OSU name.# and the password is the
one you use with all OSU email and registration systems. If you have a problem logging
in or using Carmen, contact 688-HELP or [email protected]. You must also keep up to
date on your OSU email account. IMPORTANT: The course staff will only send email
to your official OSU email account, not yahoo, gmail, or other accounts.
Recitation: Weekly, one-hour periods will include discussion of lecture material
and amplification of this content through additional assignments and practical
demonstrations performed in class. Some may be performed live, in a small arena,
projected to a screen, others will be studied from video recordings made in the laboratory.
Goals and Objectives for the GEC Natural Science Category:
Courses in natural sciences foster an understanding of the principles, theories and
methods of modern science, the relationship between science and technology, and the
effects of science and technology on the environment.
Learning Objectives:
1. Students understand the basic facts, principles, theories and methods of modern
science.
2. Students learn key events in the history of science.
3. Students provide examples of the inter-dependence of scientific and technological
developments.
4. Students discuss social and philosophical implications of scientific discoveries
and understand the potential of science and technology to address problems of the
contemporary world.
Lecture and CARMEN Notes
Dr. Wenzel expects to post on CARMEN brief notes for the upcoming lecture
within a day or so before lecture. You are encouraged to print these, bring them to
lecture, and use them as a framework for your own more extensive notes. There is no
substitute for attending lecture and taking good notes, two or more pages per lecture.
Write down the numbers of the figures used in lecture so that you can refer to them later
in the book. Make small cartoons of figures to accompany your notes so you will
remember the point. Without guidelines you won't remember adequate detail to do well
on exams. If you have questions relevant to the lecture, feel free to ask during lecture. If
you are too shy for that, come up to the stage after class, send Dr. Wenzel an email, or
ask your TA.
Grading:
Grading will be based on both factual content and conceptual connections. Grades
will be composed of scores from the best three of four quizzes (20 points each, total of 60
pts), a midterm (100 points), a comprehensive final (100), and the best four of five short
essays (10 points each, total of 40 pts) related to material presented in recitation. From
this grand total of 300 points, grades will be calculated as shown below. Quizzes and
exams will be composed of a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions. Essays
should be pointed discussions of about 300 words. Some of these may be based on
practical demonstrations made available through recorded experiments.
Grades will be calculated on the basis of the above sum using the following formula guidelines:
% Grade % Grade %
Grade
93-100 A 80-82 B- 67-69 D+
90-92 A- 77-79 C+ 63-66 D
87-89 B+ 73-76 C 62 and below E
83-86 B 70-72 C-
Note 1: Carmen does not round averages up to the next nearest percentage point, so 92.11% and
92.99% totals both earn the grade of A-.
Posting of Grades:
All grades will be posted on Carmen; you will have 10 working days to challenge any
grade or inquire regarding any unposted grade; after that time, grades are final.
Absences:
Missed exams must be made up within a week of the date they were originally given. If
you must miss an exam for a university-sanctioned event, you must supply appropriate
documentation no less than one week before the event. If you are too ill to take an exam, please
contact the TA, within 24 hours of the class period in which the exam was taken.
Academic Misconduct:
OSU has a strict code of academic misconduct that requires us to report any and all cases
of suspected misconduct (e.g. cheating on an exam, plagiarism in written assignments, using an
exam proxy, etc.) to the OSU Committee on Academic Misconduct for adjudication. We will
adhere to this policy. Students are also expected to adhere to the code, and neither commit
misconduct nor help others conceal it.
Accommodation of Special Needs:
Any students registered with the Office of Disability Services as needing accommodation
should speak with Dr. Wenzel or the TA regarding those needs. Please do this within the first
two weeks of the quarter, and feel free to contact any of the course instructors either after class or
during office hours. Please see the TA directly for authorization of ODS forms. Please fill out
those parts of the proctor sheet forms that are to be completed by the student before bringing the
form for signature. This will help us ensure that your individual needs will be met appropriately
and fairly.
Sexual Harassment
OSU considers sexual harassment to be unacceptable behavior that destroys opportunities
for learning. Please report any concerns about questionable or unwanted behavior to Dr. Wenzel
or the TA.
Topic Reading (italic = optional)
Week 1. Foundations
Lecture 1: Introduction: What are insects? Borror & White
Lecture 2: Social insects, an overview Michener & Michener, Wilson
Lecture 3: Definitions, Hamilton’s theorem OSU, EOW ch.17
Recitation: General overview of sociality
Week 2. Hymenoptera Natural History
Lecture 4: Natural History of wasps OSU, EOW pp.7-12, 18-26
Lecture 5: Natural History of bees OSU, EOW pp. 166-17
Lecture 6: ** Video** Honey bee dance Alcock, EOW pp. 262-271
Recitation: Simple navigation rules and simple mazes, with milkweed bugs
Week 3. Getting about in the big world
Lecture 7: *Quiz* Matters of Scale Haldane
Lecture 8: Natural History of ants OSU, EOW ch. 4
Lecture 9: Natural History of Termites I OSU, EOW ch.6, 10
Recitation: Tetramorium ants and light orientation
Week 4. Termite Natural History
Lecture 10: Orientation I Tinbergen
Lecture 11: Pheromones OSU, EOW pp 249-252.
Lecture 12: *Quiz* ** Video** Little Creatures that run the world (handout)
Recitation: Trail pheromones
Week 5. (Midterm week)..
Lecture 13: Sex Ratio I. OSU, Trivers
Lecture 14: Sex Ratio II (above)
Lecture 15: **Midterm**
Recitation: review
Week 6. Self organization.
Lecture 16: Self organization theory OSU
Lecture 17: Wasps (above)
Lecture 18: Honey bees (above)
Recitation: Crematogaster ants, and choosing the shortest path
Week 7 Kin Recognition
Lecture 19: Kin recognition in bees OSU
Lecture 20: Kin recognition in ants and wasps OSU
Lecture 21: *Quiz*
Recitation: Kin recognition in bees.
Week 8. Dance Language (lessons may be rearranged to accommodate weather)
Lecture 22: Orientation II Hölldobler & Wilson; Rissing &Wheeler
Lecture 23: Caste determination, primitively social bees and wasps OSU EOW ch. 9
Lecture 24: Caste determination, ants. OSU, EOW ch.8
Recitation: Behavioral dominance in sweat bees.
Week 9 . Caste Determination.
Lecture 25: Caste determination, highly social bees and wasps OSU EOW ch. 9
Lecture 26. Caste determination, termites OSU
Lecture 27. *Quiz* Honey bee dance.
Recitation: Honey bee dance language
Week 10.
Memorial Day, no class
Lecture 28: Nest Architecture OSU
Lecture 29: (Honey bee dance, or review) [Alcock, EOW pp. 262-271]
Recitation: Review (or honey bee dance)
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, June 6, 11:30-1:18, in Jennings 155
