Part 4 deals equally well with the problems of land use change with good general chapters by M. Samways, M. B. Usher and a pertinent one on insect extinctions by N. A. Mawdsley and N. E. Stork. Luff and Woiwoods chapter on insects as indicators of land use change is equally well written though not as broad in its scope. Section 5 is 'Short Communications' and contains 10 shorter chapters on a variety of subjects many of which are complementary to one or more of the earlier chapters. On the whole this book is quite thought provoking and information dense. It will undoubtedly be of great use to many students of ecology at many different levels of expertise.
Bees are an important aspect of the ecology of any habitat.
Everybody knows that they pollinate flowers and this helps seeds and fruits to set. For most people bees mean the European Honey Bee Apis mellifera , but there are many others. There are in fact several hundred species of Bumble Bees and thousands of species of solitary bee. Solitary bees, as their name suggests, do not live in large colonies like honey bees but nest singly, though these single nests may be highly aggregated. The solitary bees are also important in pollination ecology, they often pollinate flowers that honey bees don t, and unlike honey bees their existence has not been consciously abetted by mankind.