Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions

Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions by Moffett, Mark W.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780520261990.

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. Moffetts 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 worlds most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception. * Ants are world-class road builders, handling complex traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems * Ants take slaves from conquered armies and create societies dependent on their labor * Ants with the largest societies often deploy complex military tactics * Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other animals and growing specific crops for food