truth. With a toxic sting, and thus the ability to protect against predators, Hymenoptera were able to progress towards sociality and its associated evolutionary benefits of the shared raising of youth, individual task specialization, inter-colony communication, and food storage. To approach studying this evolutionary connection between toxicity and sociality, Schmidt recognised there needed to be a quantitative measure with which to score the painfulness of stings. Assays for toxicity are already well characterized and can be quantified, but without the Schmidt sting pain index, there would be no way to relate the amount of sociality to the level of pain, and therefore this hypothesis could not have been studied. See also Dol scale to measure pain Starr sting pain scale by Christopher Starr, based on the Schmidt index Kings of Pain, a TV series with another pain index References Further reading Berenbaum, May. "A Stinging Commentary", in American Entomologist, (Summer 2003). Conniff, Richard. "The King of Sting", in Outside, v. 21 n. 4 (April 1996), pp. 82–84, 147. Conniff, Richard. "Stung: How tiny little insects get us to do exactly as they wish", Discover, June 2003. External links The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms - Includes the graphic below A Partial Schmidt Insect Sting Pain Index Insect bites and stings Pain scales 1983 introductions