Adventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of TrillionsIntrepid international explorer, biologist, and photographer Mark W. Moffett, "the Indiana Jones of entomology," takes us around the globe on a strange and colorful journey in search of the hidden world of ants. 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. Moffett’s spectacular close-up photographs shrink us down to size, so that we can observe ants in familiar roles; warriors, builders, big-game hunters, and slave owners. We find them creating marketplaces and assembly lines and dealing with issues we think of as uniquely human—including hygiene, recycling, and warfare. Adventures among Ants introduces some of the world’s most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception. • Ants are world-class road builders, handling traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems in their complexity • Ants with the largest societies often deploy complicated military tactics • Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other insects and growing crops for food |
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
2 The Perfect Swarm | 23 |
3 Division of Labor | 36 |
4 Infrastructure | 51 |
5 Group Transport | 62 |
6 Big Game Hunters | 72 |
7 Clash of the Titans | 85 |
12 Slaves of Sagehen Creek | 148 |
13 Abduction in the Afternoon | 157 |
14 A Fungus Farmers Life | 170 |
15 The Origins of Agriculture | 187 |
16 Armies of the Earth | 202 |
17 The Immortal Society | 213 |
Conclusion | 221 |
Acknowledgments and A Note on Content | 232 |
Other editions - View all
Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions Mark W. Moffett No preview available - 2010 |
Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions Mark W. Moffett No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Acromyrmex Amazon ants Anim ant colony ant’s Argentine ants army ant raid army ants Atta cephalotes Atta colombica Behav behavior Bert Hölldobler Biol Biotropica body brood Camponotus canopy carpenter ant Caspar colony’s column defense diversus division of labor Dorylus driver ants Eciton Eciton burchellii Ecol Ecology Entomol Evol evolution example foliage forest Formica front fungus garden genetic ground group transport harvester honeypot ants human individuals Insectes Soc jaws kill Large Colony larvae leaf leaf-cutting ant leafcutter leaves legs living mandibles marauder ants mass foraging meal meters minor workers move MW Moffett Natl nestmates numbers Oecophylla organisms Pheidologeton pheromone plant Polyergus ponerine populations predation prey Proc pupae queen rainforest recruitment route rubellus scent scouts seeds slavemakers slaves Social Insects societies Sociobiol soil species strategy Sullia supercolonies superorganism swarm raid Temnothorax termites territories tree tropical trunk trails University Press watched weaver ants Wilson