Humans have long been fascinated by ants. While not necessarily
brightly coloured or beautiful, ants display some remarkable
characteristics that are almost unique in the animal world. They
live in intricately organized societies, made up of individuals
that cooperate, communicate, and divide up daily tasks. They
display amazing ingenuity when it comes to building nests and other
structures, finding supplies, or even exploiting other members of
the animal kingdom. They are capable
too of aggression and violence, of disturbing the apparent peace of
their colonies and of sudden fratricidal or matricidal strife. In
short, the lives of ants are among the most fascinating in the
natural world.
This is an account of those lives - looking at the many species of
ants around the world, explaining the secret of their huge
ecological success, examining the remarkable and varied behaviours
that ants exhibit, and tying in molecular biology, genetics, and
even cutting-edge developments in robotics, to shed light on what
makes ants unique.
Ausstattung/Bilder: 2010. 256 p. w. 8 col. plates.
Englisch
Abmessung: 16mm x 129mm x 196mm
Gewicht: 213g
ISBN-13: 9780199541874
ISBN-10: 0199541876
Best.Nr.: 27368863
Review from previous edition This readable book contains...and answers all the things you've ever wanted to know about ants. s James Delingpole, Mail on Sunday d 17/05/2009
An extraordinary book. The Herald
Laurent Keller is Professor of Ecology and Evolution, and Head of the Department of Ecology and Evolution, at the University of Lausanne. As well as numerous research papers, he has edited the books 'Queen Number and Sociality in Insects' ((1993) and 'Levels of Selection in Evolution' (1999). In 2005 he was awarded the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award
Inhaltsangabe
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
