Dr. James H. Hunt Department of Biology phone 314-553-6209 University of Missouri - St. Louis fax 314-553-6233 St. Louis, MO 63121 Bitnet C4926@UMSLVMA U.S.A. Dear BEE-L subscribers: I need help. For the upcoming IUSSI Congress in Bangalore I am co-organizing (with Christine Nalepa of North Carolina State U.) a symposium entitled: "The Role of Nourishment in the Ontogeny and Evolution of Insect Societies." Christine works on wood roaches; I work mostly on wasps. We have speakers on subsocial insects, termites, legionary ants, and other taxa. Our coverage of bees, however, is weak. Rinus Sommeijer (Univ. Utrecht) is a probable contributor on Meliponines, and I have a possible speaker in mind for Apis (though I welcome your comments/suggestions on Apis/Bombus). I have no leads at all, though, on non-apine bees. Who might be appropriate to review the role of nourishment in the social biology of halictines and/or allodapines? Possible topics for such a review would include: food sources (e.g., seasonality, abundance, reliability); nourishment (e.g., developmental constraints); provisioning (e.g., behavior, differential provisioning and caste); trophallaxis; and the relation between nourishment and ovarian development. A two-page summary of the presentation would be published in the proceedings of the Bangalore Congress. Preliminary investigation has suggested the likelihood that the full symposium proceedings, plus a couple of additional contributions, may be published as a book after the congress. Any comments? Suggestions? A volunteer? What about Bombus? I look forward to hearing from you. Jim Hunt