The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct

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.

Author: Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 11/15/2010
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.78lbs
Size: 8.30h x 6.30w x 0.49d
ISBN13: 9780393338683
ISBN10: 0393338681
BISAC Categories:
- Nature | Animals | Insects & Spiders