| The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct Contributor(s): Hölldobler, Bert (Author), Wilson, Edward O. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0393338681 ISBN-13: 9780393338683 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2010 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Nature | Animals - Insects & Spiders |
| Dewey: 595.796 |
| LCCN: 2010016202 |
| Physical Information: 0.49" H x 6.3" W x 8.3" (0.78 lbs) 192 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Holldobler, Bert: - Bert Hölldobler is Foundation Professor at Arizona State University and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. He lives in Arizona and Germany.Wilson, Edward O.: - Edward O. Wilson is widely recognized as one of the world's preeminent biologists and naturalists. The author of more than thirty books, including Half-Earth, The Social Conquest of Earth, The Meaning of Human Existence, and Letters to a Young Scientist, Wilson is a professor emeritus at Harvard University. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he lives with his wife, Irene Wilson, in Lexington, Massachusetts. |