Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Leafcutter Ants by Bert Hölldobler - Available

The Leafcutter Ants

Civilization by Instinct

by Bert Hölldobler
Edward O. Wilson
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Read a sample Read a sample
1 of 1 copy available

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants comes this dynamic and visually spectacular portrait of Earth's ultimate superorganism.

The Leafcutter Ants is the most detailed and authoritative description of any ant species ever produced. With a text suitable for both a lay and a scientific audience, the book provides an unforgettable tour of Earth's most evolved animal societies. Each colony of leafcutters contains as many as five million workers, all the daughters of a single queen that can live over a decade. A gigantic nest can stretch thirty feet across, rise five feet or more above the ground, and consist of hundreds of chambers that reach twenty-five feet below the ground surface. Indeed, the leafcutters have parlayed their instinctive civilization into a virtual domination of forest, grassland, and cropland—from Louisiana to Patagonia. Inspired by a section of the authors' acclaimed The Superorganism, this brilliantly illustrated work provides the ultimate explanation of what a social order with a half-billion years of animal evolution has achieved.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 15, 2010

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780393340877
      • File size: 3229 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780393340877
      • File size: 3229 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      October 15, 2010
      Leafcutter ants are familiar to all who watch nature shows about the tropics, or those who live in rural Texas and Louisiana. These are the ants busily running in columns on trails they keep free of debris and vegetation, carrying freshly cut sections of leaves and flower petals over their heads like parasols. If one followed the ants to their nest, one would discover an immense network of tunnels, the majority of which are an underground garden in which the ants grow their foodfungus planted onto a substrate of chewed plant material previously brought by the ants. In this new look at the leafcutter ants, Pulitzer Prize winners Hlldobler (with Wilson for The Ants, 1990) and Wilson (On Human Nature, 1978) introduce the general reader to earths most evolved animal society. With the colonys queen as its reproductive organ; the various ages and types of workers as the brain, heart, and other organs; and the communication among the ants similar to the communication of nerves and ganglia, a leafcutter ant colony can be truly considered as a superorganism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading