Synopses & Reviews
Since time immemorial, human beings have been fascinated by ants, amazed by them, intrigued and captivated by them. With numerous black-and-white images and eight pages of color plates,
The Lives of Ants provides a state-of-the-art look at what we now know about these fascinating creatures, portraying a world that is rich and full of surprises, one which, even after decades of observation, is still full of unsolved mysteries.
The authors illuminate the world of the ant, shedding light on such topics as the ant's impressive abilities in direction finding and quite amazing ingenuity when it comes to building their nests, finding supplies, or exploiting other members of the animal kingdom. They show, too, that they are capable of aggression and violence, which can disturb the apparent peace of their colonies and embroil them in fratricidal or matricidal strife. Even their sexual arrangements are at times quite strange. In this area, as in many others, they display marked originality. Readers also discover that ants are walking bundles of secretory glands (they have about forty of them), which enable them to emit between ten and twenty different pheromones, each of which has its own "meaning." Some are produced by workers for recruiting their sisters or for alerting them to danger. Others are used for marking territory, for identifying members of their colony or conversely for detecting foreigners, and for indicating the location of food. In addition, ants can also emit sound signals, made of a high-pitched squeak, and they can even dance, though not as intricately or as well as bees.
The Lives of Ants combines natural history with molecular biology, genetics, and even the latest developments in robotics, to explore the remarkable societies of ants, revealing the secrets of their mysterious lives.
Synopsis
With numerous black-and-white images and eight pages of color plates, The Lives of Ants provides a state-of-the-art look at what we now know about these fascinating creatures, portraying a world that is rich and full of surprises, and still full of unsolved mysteries. The authors illuminate the world of the ant, shedding light on such topics as the ant's impressive abilities in direction finding and quite amazing ingenuity when it comes to building their nests, finding supplies, or exploiting other members of the animal kingdom. They show, too, that they are capable of aggression and violence, which can embroil entire colonies in fratricidal or matricidal war. Readers also discover that ants are walking bundles of secretory glands (they have about forty of them), which enable them to emit from ten to twenty different pheromones, each of which has its own "meaning." In addition, ants can emit sound signals, made of a high-pitched squeak, and they can even dance, though not as intricately or as well as bees.
About the Author
Laurent Keller is Professor of Ecology and Evolution, and Head of the Department of Ecology and Evolution, at the University of Lausanne. In 2005 he was awarded the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award.
Books by the same Author -
Levels of Selection in Evolution Queen Number and Sociality in Insects
Elisabeth Gordon is a freelance journalist and writer.
Table of Contents
Introduction
An ecological success story
1. Anywhere and everywhere
2. On tastes and colours
3. The secrets of success
4. A huge impact on the environment
5. A long long story
Social life
6. The birth of the colony
7. Division of labour
8. Let slip the ants of war
9. Flexible work arrangements
10. Communication systems
11. Family models
12. Parasites and slave-makers
Nowt so rum as ants!
13. Army ants
14. We work at the weaver's trade
15. Navigators who never lose their way
16. Honeypots
Advantageous liaisons
17. Colonies and their livestock
18. Ant trees
19. Attines and mushrooms getting on famously
Bloody pests!
20. Stand by for invaders!
21. Supercolonies
Kith and kin
22. Genetic altruism and sociality
23. Family feuds
24. Nepotism or not?
25. Caste struggles
26. Anything goes
Sociogenetics
27. Genes and family structure
28. The genomics of behaviour
29. So what's so special about the genome of fire ants?
High-tech ants
30. Computer modelling behaviour
31. Of ants and IT men
32. Swarm robotics
Conclusion
Further reading