Abstract: Insect social identity recognition refers to a biological phenomenon that insects can recognize the identity of other individuals through the perception of various cues, and then establish certain social relationships. Social identity recognition is particularly important for information exchange, defence against natural enemies, social division of labour, and individual and group survival and reproduction of social insects. In this article, social insects such as ants, termites and bees were used as examples to elaborate the mechanism of social identity recognition. Social insects use pheromones as the key cues to realize social identity recognition through olfaction, and also realize social identity recognition through visual observation of individual behaviours from their nest mates or natural enemies. Social insects can also recognize special sound signals and sense seismic waves in the air, which serve as an important basis for their social identity recognition. In addition, previous studies have shown that insect symbiotic bacteria are also involved in the social identity recognition of social insects. In light of the debate on whether social insect identity is formed by nature or nurture, we argued that insects may realize the social identity recognition through a combination of innate inheritance and acquired learning from the aspects of genes, adaptive learning and interaction between genes and environment. Social insects are excellent model organisms for studies on social behaviours of humans and other animals. Therefore, new findings on social identity recognition of social insects can not only expand our understandings on their biological characteristics, but also provide scientific bases for studies on the evolution of social cognition and various social problems in humans and other animals. The research in the following two aspects should be strengthened in the future: (1) to explore the various recognition methods of social insects and decipher their deeper mechanisms; and (2) to apply modern new computer technology to visualise and analyze the identity recognition behaviour of social insects.

Key words:  , Social insects, social identity recognition, information exchange, learning, recognition mechanism