Adventures Among Ants

by Moffett, Mark W.

• ISBN13: 9780520261990
• ISBN10: 0520261992
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-05
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Intrepid 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Travels with My Ants	p. 1
A Brief Primer on Ants	p. 7
Marauder Ant, the Ultimate Omnivore
Strength in Numbers	p. 12
The Perfect Swarm	p. 23
Division of Labor	p. 36
Infrastructure	p. 51
Group Transport	p. 62
African Army Ant, Raiders on the Swarm
Big Game Hunters	p. 72
Clash of the Titans	p. 85
Notes from Underground	p. 95
Weaver Ant, Empress of the Air
Canopy Empires	p. 110
Fortified Forests	p. 120
Negotiating the Physical World	p. 133
Amazon Ant, the Slavemaker
Slaves of Sagehen Creek	p. 148
Abduction in the Afternoon	p. 157
Leafcutter Ant, the Constant Gardener
A Fungus Farmer's Life	p. 170
The Origins of Agriculture	p. 187
Argentine Ant, the Global Invader
Armies of the Earth	p. 202
The Immortal Society	p. 213
Conclusion: Four Ways of Looking at an Ant	p. 221
Acknowledgments and a Note on Content	p. 232
Notes	p. 234
Index	p. 265
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