Speciation is one of the great themes of evolutionary biology. This work offers information on species concepts, modes of speciation, the nature of reproductive barriers, the forces that drive divergence of populations, the genetic control of reproductive isolation, and the role played by hybrid zones and hybridization in speciation.

Preface Part I: History 1: Stewart H. Berlocher: Origins: A Brief History of Research on Speciation Part II: Species Concepts 2: Richard G. Harrison: Linking Evolutionary Pattern and Process: The Relevance of Species Concepts for the Study of Speciation 3: Alan R. Templeton: Species and Speciation: Geography, Population Structure, Ecology, and Gene Trees 4: Kerry L. Shaw: Species and the Diversity of Natural Groups 5: Kevin de Queiroz: The General Lineage Concept of Species, Species Criteria, and the Process of Speciation: A Conceptual Unification and Terminological Recommendations Part III: Geography, Ecology, and Population Structure 6: Paul A. Johnson and Urban Gullberg: Theory and Models of Sympatric Speciation 7: Alexey S. Kondrashov, Lev Yu. Yampolsky, and Svetlana A. Shabalina: On the Sympatric Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 8: Steward H. Berlocher: Can Symatric Speciation via Host of Habitat Shift be Proven from Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Evidence? 9: Dolph Schluter: Ecological Causes of Speciation 10: Jeffrey L. Feder: The Apple Maggot Fly, Rhagoletis Pomonella: Flies in the Face of Conventional Wisdom about Speciation 11: Steph B. J. Menkin and P. Roessignh: Evolution of Insect-Plant Associations: Sensory Perception and Receptor Modifications Direct Food Specialization and Host Shifts in Phytophagous Insects 12: Mark R. Macnair and Mike Gardner: The Evolution of Edaphic Endemics 13: Amy R. McCune and Nathan R. Lovejoy: The Relative Rate of Sympatric and Allopatric Speciation in Fishes: Tests Using DNA Sequence Divergence between Sister Species and among Clades 14: H.A. Lessios: The First Stage of Speciation as Seen in Organisms Separated by the Isthmus of Panama 15: James L. Patton and Maria Nazareth F. da Silva: Rivers, Refuges, and Ridges: The Geography of Speciation of Amazonian Mammals Part IV: Reproductive Barriers 16: Marta Martinez Wells and Charles S. Henry: Songs, Preproductive Isolation, and Speciation in Cryptic Species of Insects: A Case Study Using Green Lacewings 17: Therese Ann Markow and Gregory D. Hocutt: Reproductive Isolation in Sonoran Desert Drosophila: Testing the Limits of the Rules 18: John H. Werren: Wolbachia and Speciation 19: William R. Rice: Intergenomic Conflict, Interlocus Antagonistic Coevolution, and he Evolution of Reproductive Isolation 20: Stephen R. Palumbi: Species Formation and the Evolution of Gamete Recognition Loci 21: Daniel J. Howard, Marta Reece, Pamela G. Gregory, Jiming Chu, Michael L. Cain: The Evolution of Barriers to Fertilization Between Closely Related Organisms Part V: The Genetics of Speciation 22: Michael G. Ritchie and Stephen D. F. Phillips: The Genetics of Sexual Isolation 23: Dorothy Pashley Prowell: Sex Linkage and Speciation in Lepidoptera 24: Franco Spirito: The Role of Chromosomal Change in Speciation 25: Horacio Fachal Naveira and Xulio Rodriguez Maside: The Genetics of Hybrid Male Sterility in Drosophila 26: Chung-I Wu and Hope Hollocher: Subtle is Nature: The Genetics of Species Differentiation and Speciation 27: Sara Via and David J. Hawthorne: The Genetics of Speciation: Promises and Prospects of Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping Part VI: Hybrid Zones and Speciation 28: Roger Butlin: What Do Hybrid Zones in General, and the Chorthippus parallelus Zone in Particular, Tell Us about Speciation? 29: Machael L. Arnold and Simon K. Emms: Paradigm Lost -- Natural Hubridization and Evolutionary Innovations 30: James Mallet, W. Owen McMillan, and Chris D. Jiggins: Mimicry and Warning Color at the Boundary Between Races and Species 31: B. Rosemary Grant and Peter R. Grant: Hybridization and Speciation in Darwin's Finches: The Role of Sexual Imprinting on a Culturally Transmitted Trait Part VII: Perspectives 32: Guy L. Bush: The Conceptual Radicalization of an Evolutionary Biologist 33: Daniel J. Howard: Unanswered Questions and Future Directions in the Study of Speciation

A timely review of the major recent advances in a fast moving and important area of research. ...very useful book for researches and graduate students who want to be abreast of the latest thinking on the evolution of biological diversity, and it won't go amiss as reading for senior undergraduates.