Table 1.

Selected social insect models and examples of complex behaviors that show potential to study underlying neuronal circuits

Social insect model organism	Behavior of interest	References
Termites
Macrotermes natalensis	Vibrational communication	Hager and Kirchner [24]
Ants
Cataglyphis spec.	Navigation	Wehner [5]
Ooceraea biroi	Chemical communication	Trible et al. [25]
Harpegnathos saltator	Social stress and reproduction	Yan et al. [26]
Camponotus floridanus	Caste-specific polyethism	Zube and Rössler [27], Bonasio et al. [28]
Wasps
Polistes fuscatus	Individual face recognition	Tibbetts [29]
Bees
Bombus terrestris	Color learning	Lichtenstein et al. [30]
	Social learning/cultural transmission	Alem et al. [13]
Bombus impatiens	Route learning (traplining)	Saleh and Chittka [31]
	Decision making	Riveros and Gronenberg [32]
Apis mellifera	Dance communication	von Frisch [17]
	Time–place memory	Koltermann [16]
	Age-related polyethism	Withers et al. [33]
	Associative learning and memory	Giurfa [21]
	Age-related (neuro-) plasticity	Groh et al. [34]
Apis florea	Dance behavior	Dyer [35]