The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct

Author: Bert Hölldobler
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340872
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants comes this dynamic and visually spectacular portrait of Earth's ultimate superorganism. The Leafcutter Ants is the most detailed and authoritative description of any ant species ever produced. With a text suitable for both a lay and a scientific audience, the book provides an unforgettable tour of Earth's most evolved animal societies. Each colony of leafcutters contains as many as five million workers, all the daughters of a single queen that can live over a decade. A gigantic nest can stretch thirty feet across, rise five feet or more above the ground, and consist of hundreds of chambers that reach twenty-five feet below the ground surface. Indeed, the leafcutters have parlayed their instinctive civilization into a virtual domination of forest, grassland, and cropland—from Louisiana to Patagonia. Inspired by a section of the authors' acclaimed The Superorganism, this brilliantly illustrated work provides the ultimate explanation of what a social order with a half-billion years of animal evolution has achieved.

The Humane Gardener

Author: Nancy Lawson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616896175
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Herbivory of Leaf-Cutting Ants

Author: Rainer Wirth
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662052598
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
Plant-animal interactions have become a focus of ecological research, with the processes of herbivory being of special interest. This volume examines the interactions of leaf-cutting ants with the rainforest vegetation on Barro Colorado Islands in Central America. It is the synthesis of field research on multiple scales extending over a period of several years. This work can serve as a model study summarizing and extending knowledge about herbivorous insect-plant relationships, and the resulting consequences on structural and functional features of tropical ecosystems. The text is an invaluable reference for researchers and land managers working in the fields of plant-animal interactions, herbivory, community ecology and biodiversity.

Crickwing

Author: Janell Cannon
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152050610
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Book Description
An Oddball Artist's Epic Adventure

Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors

Author: Susanne Foitzik
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615197133
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
“Beautifully illustrated with color photographs, the book offers a view into parallels between seemingly out-of-this-world ant societies and our own, including cities, an intense work ethic, division of labor, intragroup cooperation combined with genocidal outgroup warfare, even a kind of to-the-death national loyalty. The authors’ scientific rigor is matched by their joy in their subjects.”—The Wall Street Journal Shortlisted for the 2022 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize This sweeping portrait of the world’s uncontested six-legged conquerors will open your eyes to the secret societies thriving right beneath your feet—and shift your perspective on humanity. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look. Ants build megacities, tend gardens, wage wars, and farm livestock. Ants have flourished since the age of the dinosaurs. There are one million ants for every one of us. Engineered by nature to fulfill their particular roles, ants flawlessly perform a complex symphony of tasks to sustain their colony—seemingly without a conductor—from fearsome army ants, who stage twelve-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters cooperatively gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms. Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has traveled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites readers deep into her world in both the field and the lab. Exploring these insects’ tiny yet incredible lives will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower. Publisher’s note: Planet of the Ants was previously published in hardcover as Empire of Ants.

Insects of the Texas Lost Pines

Author: Stephen Welton Taber
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585442362
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
In an isolated pine forest on the eastern edge of Central Texas, there lies an island of abundant and diversified life known as the Lost Pines. Separated from the rest of the state’s East Texas pine forests by more than one hundred miles, the Lost Pines marks the westernmost stand of the loblolly pine and is a refuge for plants and animals more typically associated with the southeastern United States where the tree originated. Surrounded now by pastures and scattered oak woodlands, the Lost Pines supports a remarkable ecosystem, a primeval sanctuary amidst the urban bustle of nearby Austin and of neighboring communities Bastrop, Elgin, and Smithville. This 100,000 acre island includes portions of Bastrop and Buescher State Parks, and it was here that Stephen W. Taber and Scott Fleenor encountered insect life of astonishing diversity. Setting out to identify and describe the insects and related animals most readily observed in the Lost Pines, they also discovered some hidden, rare, and never-before-described species. The result is this book, a bestiary of more than 280 species of invertebrates including insects, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, mollusks, and worms. Each species description includes common and scientific names; information on biology, distribution, and similar species; and the authors’ special remarks. Many of these animals occur outside the forest, making Insects of the Texas Lost Pines a useful guide to Texas invertebrates in general. When you visit Bastrop State Park, you are likely to see more bugs and spineless creatures than any other form of animal life. The next time you go, turn over a few logs, look at the ants, and don’t swat the flies. Take along this new guide and open up a world of life in one of Texas's most unique and popular landscapes.

Journey to the Ants

Author: Bert Hölldobler
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674254589
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
Richly illustrated and delightfully written, Journey to the Ants combines autobiography and scientific lore to convey the excitement and pleasure the study of ants can offer. Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson interweave their personal adventures with the social lives of ants, building, from the first minute observations of childhood, a remarkable account of these abundant insects’ evolutionary achievement.

Adventures Among Ants

Author: Mark W. Moffett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780520271289
Category : Ant communities
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo.

Kingdom of Ants

Author: Edward O. Wilson
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801899737
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 111

Book Description
One of the earliest New World naturalists, José Celestino Mutis began his professional life as a physician in Spain and ended it as a scientist and natural philosopher in modern-day Colombia. Drawing on new translations of Mutis's nearly forgotten writings, this fascinating story of scientific adventure in eighteenth-century South America retrieves Mutis's contributions from obscurity. In 1760, the 28-year-old Mutis—newly appointed as the personal physician of the Viceroy of the New Kingdom of Granada—embarked on a 48-year exploration of the natural world of northern South America. His thirst for knowledge led Mutis to study the region's flora, become a professor of mathematics, construct the first astronomical observatory in the Western Hemisphere, and amass one of the largest scientific libraries in the world. He translated Newton's writings and penned essays about Copernicus; lectured extensively on astronomy, geography, and meteorology; and eventually became a priest. But, as two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Edward O. Wilson and Spanish natural history scholar José M. Gómez Durán reveal in this enjoyable and illustrative account, one of Mutis's most magnificent accomplishments involved ants. Acting at the urging of Carl Linnaeus—the father of taxonomy—shortly after he arrived in the New Kingdom of Granada, Mutis began studying the ants that swarmed everywhere. Though he lacked any entomological training, Mutis built his own classification for the species he found and named at a time when New World entomology was largely nonexistent. His unorthodox catalog of army ants, leafcutters, and other six-legged creatures found along the banks of the Magdalena provided a starting point for future study. Wilson and Durán weave a compelling, fast-paced story of ants on the march and the eighteenth-century scientist who followed them. A unique glance into the early world of science exploration, Kingdom of Ants is a delight to read and filled with intriguing information.

Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants

Author: Eleanor Spicer Rice
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644581X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Book Description
In this witty, accessible, and beautifully illustrated guide, Eleanor Spicer Rice, Alex Wild, and Rob Dunn metamorphose creepy-crawly revulsion into myrmecological wonder. Dr. Eleanor?s Book of Common Ants provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural history of species most noted by project participants. Exploring species from the spreading red imported fire ant to the pavement ant, and featuring Wild?s stunning photography, this guide will be a tremendous resource for teachers, students, and scientists alike. But more than this, it will transform the way we perceive the environment around us by deepening our understanding of its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt?magnifying glass in hand.