We are entering one of the most exciting periods in the study of chemical communication since the first pheromones were identified some 40 years ago. This rapid progress is reflected in this book, the first to cover the whole animal kingdom at this level for 25 years. The importance of chemical communication is illustrated with examples from a diverse range of animals including humans, marine copepods, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, moths, snakes, goldfish, elephants and mice. It is designed to be advanced and up-to-date, but at the same time accessible to readers whatever their scientific background. For students of ecology, evolution and behaviour, this book gives an introduction to the rapid progress in our understanding of olfaction at the molecular and neurological level. In addition, it offers chemists, molecular and neurobiologists an insight into the ecological, evolutionary and behavioural context of olfactory communication.

1. Animals in a chemical world; 2. Discovering pheromones; 3. Sex pheromones: finding and choosing mates; 4. Coming together and keeping apart: aggregation and host-marking pheromones; 5. Scent marking and territorial behaviour; 6. Pheromones and social organization; 7. Pheromones and recruitment communication; 8. Fight-or-flight: alarm pheromones; 9. Perception and action of pheromones: from receptor molecules to brains and behaviour; 10. Finding the source: pheromones and orientation behaviour; 11. Breaking the code: illicit signallers and receivers of semiochemical signals; 12. Using pheromones: applications; 13. On the scent of human attraction: human pheromones?; Appendix A: An introduction to pheromones for non-chemists; References.