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.
By:
Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson (Harvard University) Imprint: Norton Country of Publication: United States Dimensions:
Height: 211mm,
Width: 157mm,
Spine: 13mm
Weight: 352g ISBN:9780393338683 ISBN 10: 0393338681 Pages: 192 Publication Date:14 January 2011 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Bert Holldobler is the Foundation Professor at Arizona State University. Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard University professor for nearly five decades, is the author of more than twenty books. Both are the recipients of numerous awards.