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This landmark work, the distillation of a lifetime of research by the world's leading myrmecologists, is a thoroughgoing survey of one of the largest and most diverse groups of animals on the planet. Hölldobler and Wilson review in exhaustive detail virtually all topics in the anatomy, physiology, social organization, ecology, and natural history of the ants. In large format, with almost a thousand line drawings, photographs, and paintings, it is one of the most visually rich and all-encompassing views of any group of organisms on earth. It will be welcomed both as an introduction to the subject and as an encyclopedia reference for researchers in entomology, ecology, and sociobiology.
Bert Hölldobler is now Foundation Professor of Biology at Arizona State University; formerly Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociology at the Theodor Boveri Institute, University of Würzburg. He is also the recipient of the U.S. Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German government. Until 1990, he was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.
Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Ants.- Classification and Origins.- The Colony Life Cycle.- Altruism and the Origin of the Worker Caste.- Colony Odor and Kin Recognition.- Queen Numbers and Domination.- Communication.- Caste and Division of Labor.- Social Homeostasis and Flexibility.- Foraging Strategies, Territory, and Population Regulation.- The Organization of Species Communities.- Symbioses among Ant Species.- Symbioses with Other Arthropods.- Symbioses between Ants and Plants.- The Specialized Predators.- The Army Ants.- The Fungus Growers.- The Harvesting Ants.- Weaver Ants.- Collecting, Culturing, Observing.
If you have any interest in ants, communal insects or insects in general, you need this book. It is just the best non-specialist book you can find.
Anonymous
More than 1 year ago
Guest
More than 1 year ago
I received this as a Christmas gift when I was, but 12. Admittedly, I was already fascinated by ants, and though the science was above me, I kept at it. Nearly 13 years later, it never fails to offer more information than you extracted the previous time. It will take many years and extremely hard work to ever beat this book.
Guest
More than 1 year ago
This book is an exhaustive account of ants in every detail that any entomologist should have.The amount of work that went into this book is staggering!!
