11.   Other large insect groups, all moving in the same general direction, may be migratory insects, like monarch butterflies, or social insects setting up new colonies.

12.   Social insects work without supervision.

13.   That is, the teamwork of social insects is decentralized.

14.   That kind of parental care is common only among social insects, like bees.

15.   The desire to understand the nature of altruism has occupied evolutionary thinkers since Charles Darwin, who was fascinated by the apparent existence of altruism among social insects.

16.   The loss of kinship recognition is an even bigger problem for social insects, he said.

17.   The same principle of female dominance applies to the other famously social insects, the honeybees.

18.   Visscher studies the biology of bees themselves, but they also interest him as social insects with cooperative behaviors shaped by evolution.

19.   Water left in a steam iron on a kitchen counter in South Austin recently drew a regiment of the thirsty social insects inside the appliance.