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Social insect are profoundly influenced by primer pheromones (PPhs), which are efficient means for maintaining social harmony in the colony. PPhs act by affecting the physiology of the recipients with a subsequent shift in their behavior, and many PPhs have a releaser effect (i.e., changing the probability of performing a certain behavior upon perception). In this review we try to clarify the interplay between such dual pheromonal effects. Only a few PPhs have been identified, and we provide evidence for their existence in multiple species of social Hymenoptera, which is the most extensively studied of the social insects. We focus on the regulation of reproduction, social policing, and task allocation. Considering PPhs in a broad sense, we also discuss fertility signals and the role of cuticular hydrocarbons as putative PPhs. Identification of the underlying chemistry of PPhs offers insights into insect physiology and the evolution of social behavior. PPhs of the honey bee are used to demonstrate the complexity of pheromonal communication in social insects.

Social insects live in colonies; each colony, composed of up to hùndreds of thousands or evenmillions of individuals, called workers, behaves as a single integratedentity. A colony reproduces as a unit, and its properties are believed to result from selectionmainly at the level ofthe whole colony (25).Although social insects possess brains capable of sophisticated cognitive functions (22), it is unlikely that an individual colony member has the capacity to acquire and integrate information on the global state ofits colony and how that changes as a result of changing internaI and external conditions (28). One ofthe central problems in social insect biology, therefore, is that ofcolony integration: how the activities of thousands of individual workers are integrated to form a productive colony (37). Colony integration in the insect societies has been studied· intensively, and much has been learned about the mechanisms by which it is governed (4, 5, 32). Several different types of group decision-making activities in insect societies appear to be regulated by processes similar to quorum sensing in bacteria, includingdecisionsonnest sites (32a) and the allocation of labor to different activities.. Identifyingcommonalities · in the social behavior of social insects and microbes might provide ideas on social regulation in general. Studies of sorne species of microorganisms have revealed that the core elements of sociality-altruism and division oflabor-are possible without a brain at aIl (7,29). This chapter teviews our understanding of the regulation of division of labor in honeybee colonies from the perspective of quorum sensing.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic В (PPNB) and the Pottery Neolithic (PN) in the Levant, Syria and South-East Anatolia are compared with regard to ritual practice and symbolism. With regard to ritual, it is argued that instead of the suggested structuring principles in the PPNB of communality, dominant symbolism, vitality and people-animal linkage, PN rituals were marked by what has been called domesticity. In the apparent absence of a clear social hierarchy and leadership in both the PPNB and the PN — apart from probable village meetings - communal ritual in the PPNB and pottery decoration in the PN are considered to have been (symbolic) systems which helped to regulate society. The transformations from PPNB to PN society - which probably consisted not only of farmers but of nomadic pastoralists and hunter- gatherer s as well - seem to have been caused a complex set interrelated social and economic factors., Les sociétés du Néolithique précéramique В (PPNB) et du Néolithique céramique (PN) du Levant nord, Syrie et Anatolie du Sud-Est, sont ici abordées du point du vue du rituel et du symbolisme. Alors que le rituel est, au PPNB, modelé par la communauté et s 'exprime au travers d 'un symbolisme dominant, vitalité et association homme-animal, il apparaît, au Néolithique céramique, profondément marqué par la domesticité. Une hiérarchie sociale claire ne peut être mise en évidence ni au PPNB, ni au PN, à l 'exception de probables réunions de village. Le rituel communautaire au PPNB et la décoration de la céramique au PN sont considérés comme des systèmes (symboliques), régulateurs des sociétés étudiées. L 'émergence à partir du fonds PPNB de la société du Néolithique céramique -probablement constituée de paysans, mais aussi de pasteurs nomades et de chasseurs-cueilleurs - semble le résultat de l'interaction de facteurs socio-économiques complexes., Verhoeven Marc. Transformations of society : the changing role of ritual and symbolism in the PPNB and the PN in the Levant, Syria and south-east Anatolia. In: Paléorient, 2002, vol. 28, n°1. pp. 5-13.