The Complex World of Ants

The Complex World of Ants PDF Author: Vonnie D.C. Shields
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789842670
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
Ants play important roles in natural ecosystems. These eusocial insects are omnivorous feeders and live in a wide variety of habitats. They belong to the order Hymenoptera, and family Formicidae. There are more than 8800 described species that occur throughout the world. They have large heads, segmented antennae, and powerful jaws and undergo complete metamorphosis. In general, ants live typically in structured nest communities, forming nest sites in close proximity to moisture and food, underground, in ground-level mounds, or in trees. Among ant species, there is a wide range of interesting behaviors displayed. Many species are mutualistic, where they develop interactions with other insects and/or plants. Other species display parasitic relationships among each other. Still other species exhibit predatory behaviors. This book contains contributions written by experts in their respective fields and targets a wide audience. It is highly recommended as a valuable resource for general biologists, entomologists, ecologists, zoologists, and students and teachers in training in this subject matter.

The Complex World of Ants

The Complex World of Ants PDF Author: Vonnie D.C. Shields
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789842670
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ants play important roles in natural ecosystems. These eusocial insects are omnivorous feeders and live in a wide variety of habitats. They belong to the order Hymenoptera, and family Formicidae. There are more than 8800 described species that occur throughout the world. They have large heads, segmented antennae, and powerful jaws and undergo complete metamorphosis. In general, ants live typically in structured nest communities, forming nest sites in close proximity to moisture and food, underground, in ground-level mounds, or in trees. Among ant species, there is a wide range of interesting behaviors displayed. Many species are mutualistic, where they develop interactions with other insects and/or plants. Other species display parasitic relationships among each other. Still other species exhibit predatory behaviors. This book contains contributions written by experts in their respective fields and targets a wide audience. It is highly recommended as a valuable resource for general biologists, entomologists, ecologists, zoologists, and students and teachers in training in this subject matter.

The Complex World of Ants

The Complex World of Ants PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781789842685
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Introductory Chapter: The Complex World of Ants

Introductory Chapter: The Complex World of Ants PDF Author: Vonnie D.C. Shields
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Introductory Chapter: The Complex World of Ants.

Adventures among Ants

Adventures among Ants PDF Author: Mark W. Moffett
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520945417
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
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

Ant Encounters

Ant Encounters PDF Author: Deborah M. Gordon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400835445
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. Ant Encounters provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective. Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems. Ant Encounters sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.

Ants

Ants PDF Author: Eleanor Spicer Rice
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647000041
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Nature’s most successful insects captured in remarkable macrophotography In Ants, photographer Eduard Florin Niga brings us incredibly close to the most numerous animals on Earth, whose ability to organize colonies, communicate among themselves, and solve complex problems has made them an object of endless fascination. Among the more than 30 species photographed by Niga are leafcutters that grow fungus for food, trap-jaw ants with fearsome mandibles, bullet ants with potent stingers, warriors, drivers, gliders, harvesters, and the pavement ants that are always underfoot. Among his most memorable images are portraits—including queens, workers, soldiers, and rarely seen males—that bring the reader face-to-face with these creatures whose societies are eerily like our own. Science writer Eleanor Spicer Rice frames the book with a lively text that describes the life cycle of ants and explains how each species is adapted to its way of life. Ants is a great introduction to some of the Earth’s most successful creatures that showcases the power of photography to reveal the unseen world all around us.

Ant Architecture

Ant Architecture PDF Author: Walter R. Tschinkel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691218498
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
An unprecedented look at the complex and beautiful world of underground ant architecture Walter Tschinkel has spent much of his career investigating the hidden subterranean realm of ant nests. This wonderfully illustrated book takes you inside an unseen world where thousands of ants build intricate homes in the soil beneath our feet. Tschinkel describes the ingenious methods he has devised to study ant nests, showing how he fills a nest with plaster, molten metal, or wax and painstakingly excavates the cast. He guides you through living ant nests chamber by chamber, revealing how nests are created and how colonies function. How does nest architecture vary across species? Do ants have "architectural plans"? How do nests affect our environment? As he delves into these and other questions, Tschinkel provides a one-of-a-kind natural history of the planet's most successful creatures and a compelling firsthand account of a life of scientific discovery. Offering a unique look at how simple methods can lead to pioneering science, Ant Architecture addresses the unsolved mysteries of underground ant nests while charting new directions for tomorrow’s research, and reflects on the role of beauty in nature and the joys of shoestring science.

Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants

Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants PDF Author: Eleanor Spicer Rice
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644581X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
In this witty, accessible, and beautifully illustrated guide, Eleanor Spicer Rice, Alex Wild, and Rob Dunn metamorphose creepy-crawly revulsion into myrmecological wonder. Dr. Eleanor?s Book of Common Ants provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural history of species most noted by project participants. Exploring species from the spreading red imported fire ant to the pavement ant, and featuring Wild?s stunning photography, this guide will be a tremendous resource for teachers, students, and scientists alike. But more than this, it will transform the way we perceive the environment around us by deepening our understanding of its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt?magnifying glass in hand.

The Earth Dwellers

The Earth Dwellers PDF Author: Erich Hoyt
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684830450
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The author alternates stories of individual ants with the research of two field biologists in Costa Rica.

Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors

Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors PDF Author: Susanne Foitzik
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615197133
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
“Beautifully illustrated with color photographs, the book offers a view into parallels between seemingly out-of-this-world ant societies and our own, including cities, an intense work ethic, division of labor, intragroup cooperation combined with genocidal outgroup warfare, even a kind of to-the-death national loyalty. The authors’ scientific rigor is matched by their joy in their subjects.”—The Wall Street Journal Shortlisted for the 2022 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize This sweeping portrait of the world’s uncontested six-legged conquerors will open your eyes to the secret societies thriving right beneath your feet—and shift your perspective on humanity. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look. Ants build megacities, tend gardens, wage wars, and farm livestock. Ants have flourished since the age of the dinosaurs. There are one million ants for every one of us. Engineered by nature to fulfill their particular roles, ants flawlessly perform a complex symphony of tasks to sustain their colony—seemingly without a conductor—from fearsome army ants, who stage twelve-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters cooperatively gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms. Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has traveled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites readers deep into her world in both the field and the lab. Exploring these insects’ tiny yet incredible lives will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower. Publisher’s note: Planet of the Ants was previously published in hardcover as Empire of Ants.