Ants (The new naturalist ; 59) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is part of the "New Naturalist" series of books on the fauna and flora of Britain from some years ago.Brian concentrates on the ants of the British Isles with only a bit of information on non-native ants for comparison.But since ants, even from widely different environments, share much of the same structure and many of the same behaviors, there is much to learn from this highly detailed book.

Details include distribution maps of 46 species (e.g., Myrmica rubra, Leptothorax acervorum, Lasius niger, Formica rufa, etc.) over the British Isles.There are 16 black and white glossy plates showing ants in action, and two color plates showing ants from various species for comparison.The tenth and concluding chapter on "Culture Methods" advises the collector or entomologist on how to design and set up an artificial nest for observation.

The text is meant for the general reader, but I think the value of this book today is in the information it has for the professional, revealing methods and ideas then current.No doubt some of the information and methods have been superceded; indeed some of the information may be of only historical interest.Still the book remains topical since the behavior of ants hasn't changed, and is still valuable because (I suspect) some of the methods for research described here might be new to today's myrmecologists because such methods have been forgotten.

Ants are seen from the perspective of their structure (there are several detailed drawings showing glands, organs, ducts and other body parts), how they feed, how they build and protect their nests, how they take care of their brood,how they fight, etc. Brian's text is easy to read, full of specifics with an emphasis on objectivity without flair.

Some details I found interesting:

I had never heard of "anting" before reading this.Anting is the practice by some birds of standing in a pool of ants and wallowing so that the ants crawl all over them.The idea, according to Brian, is probably to get the ants to squirt formic acid, which is insecticidal, on their feathers, to kill lice and mites.

Because I am particularly interested in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile, formerly, Iridomyrmex humilis) which are epidemic here in California, I was intrigued to learn that England has its own indoor ant, Monomorium pharaonis (Pharaoh's Ant), which behaves quite a bit like the Argentine ant.It eats meat as well as sweets and likes to live within the structures of buildings.Most significantly perhaps is the fact that like Argentine ants, Monomorium exists in supercolonies with many queens that can bud off to form new nests while never developing "antagonisms or territorial behaviour." (p. 170)This latter trait is what makes the Argentine ant of the southern US and California so successful: since they are all part of one supercolony they never fight among themselves.

Brian describes what usually happens in other species when ants from different colonies meet while foraging: they fight, kill, drag home, and eat.He relates what happens when one species tries to take over the nesting space of another.He describes a large number of predators, parasites, commensals and the like that live on and inside ants, or in or near their nests.Apparently the most important talent to have for invading an ant nest is the ability to mimic or somehow acquire the smell of the ants.If you smell like us, the ants seem to say, you're okay and you can stay unharmed.In fact, some parasites manage to not only eat the host ants' brood, but get fed directly by the ants who seem oblivious to the fact that they are not feeding their own.There is one beetle, Atemeles, that offers ant workers attractive secretions from its abdominal glands.The ants like them so much that they groom and carry the beetles about.Brian reports that Atemeles is so adapted to ant ways that it "spends its winter as an adult in Myrmica nests and its summer in Formica nest where it lays its eggs." (p. 177)

There are apparently no soldier, driver, honeypot or harvester ants in Britain so those sort of ant life styles are not described.Most of the ants that Brian does describe typically milk aphids, and forage for insects and carrion.They will eat other ants and even members of their own colony during times of stress.Some species (e.g., Tetramorium caespitum) collect seeds which are masticated by workers and fed to their grubs.Ants also eat their own eggs; indeed the practice as reported by Brian is so common that it's apparent that eggs often serve as a storage of food for lean times.

This is the kind of book I wish were available covering the ants that I encounter here in California. If anybody knows of a good book on Argentine ants, please let me know.Meanwhile, I think you'll find that this hard-to-find and out-of-print gem is definitely worth reading.

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The World of Ants: A Science-Fiction Universe Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is out of print and so you'll have to find a used copy.For entomologists, amateur or otherwise, and especially for myrmecologists of all stripes, the effort will be rewarded.Written in French and first published in Paris in 1969 and then in English the following year with a clear and readable translation by George Ordish, Remy Chauvin's book is a celebration of myrmecology--the study of ants.

It is a curious book.There is no bibliography.The index refers to the great myrmecologists--August H. Forel, William M. Wheeler, Edward O. Wilson and others--simply by their last name!The focus is on the red ants of France and Germany which Chavin studied outside his home for many years; but there is also a wealth of information about other kinds of ants from studies by other scientists.The strength of the book is in the interesting details that Chauvin gives, especially about how he conducted his field research, and in his enthusiastic style.Of course, since the book is almost forty years old, there is a lot that Chauvin didn't know.I suspect that today's professionals may find some of the book a bit quaint!

I was particularly interested in how Chauvin accounted for the preceived intelligence of ants.He was writing before the term "swarm intelligence" had been coined, yet his take comes very close to anticipating the contemporary understanding.Here's an example of what I mean.Chauvin is explaining how ants "realize" the size of a discovered food source.He writes, "At first sight one might think ants pass on information...as do bees.In fact, after the ants put down their dotted line of odour, it evaporates in the course of a few mintues.If the food is not of much size, and if but few ants go to it, then only a short time will elapse before the substance evaporates and the trail is no longer marked.On the other hand, if the food is swarming with ants, new arrivals cannot get to it and they return to the nest without marking the track; thus the number of ants at the source depends on its size, without any exchange of information from ant to ant being necessary." (p. 151)

A very fine example of how swarm intelligence works!

Another example is contained in the meaning of the word "stigmergy" (from Pierre-Paul Grasse's work with termites) which Chauvin defines as "The work that stimulates the worker."The idea is to account for the fact that social insects can construct elaborate structures without any idea of what they are doing and without a plan.The gist of it is this (as Chauvin explains on pages 40 to 44): a worker may place "little pellets of building material here and there..."And then "it may happen that a worker puts its pellet not at the side of one already in postion but on top of it...The workers' behavior then slowly changes.They tend to take more interest in this embryo building..."And eventually columns grow upwards and join.Chauvin concludes, "A small number of automatic reactions combined together have simply produced an almost miraculous result."

As Edward O. Wilson has often observed, the study of social insects can shine light on ourselves, sometimes in surprising ways that help us to understand who we are and how we conduct our lives.An example of this occurs on page 153 where Chauvin (recalling the work of Maschwitz) is talking about the propensity for ants to fight rather than to flee.He writes, "given the presence of brood and a queen which must be preserved at all costs, flight makes no biological sense...Attack is the only recourse."

What I found interesting about this is that before the age of agriculture, humans did fight, perhaps much as chimpazees do today in small bands.A band could chase another from a nice territory, but it would not be that much of a gain because there were no storehouses of grain or other valuables to steal.With the rise of agriculture that all changed and waging war became a viable way to make a living.But--thinking about the above--the instance of warfare increased, not just because there was a lot to be gained from being successful at it, but because the farmers and settlers could no longer simply run away.They had to stay and fight.

One other observation: even though the habits and the structures built by ants differ from species to species, there is a great commonality in the way ants make a living.And so even though this book concentrates on the red ants of Europe, much of what is presented applies to other ants as well.Some light is even shown on the ants that I am particularly interested in, Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, formerly, Iridomyrmex humilis.While only some ants, like leaf cutters, cultivate fungus gardens, many ants, including Argentine ants, will eat fungus.I know because I left half an avocado on a dish one day and was gone for a week.I wasn't worried because I know Argentine ants will not eat avocados.However when I returned I found a stream of ants going to and from the avocado because a fungus had grown on it in my absence!

Chauvin's charming book includes drawings (some of which are rather crude) and some black and white photos.It is an eminently readable book that will appeal to both professionals and lay persons, although for professionals the interest may be mostly of a historical nature.

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Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is Organized Review

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(More customer reviews)My science teacher had this book out in the laboratory, along with several other books and guides that are current and invited us to spend that period browsing and reading.I checked this book out and also the one onNabokov's butterfly work-- Nabokov's Blues-- for Thanksgiving holiday.Ms.Gordon's book is much better than a textbook or fieldguide because itprovides an exciting story about ants and how they work.The vividdesciptions personalize ants and make it more like a book verson of "ABug's Life" movie-- but SERIOUS about the science; so is the storyabout Nabokov the scientist, which reads with a plot.Ants at Work waseasy to read, extremely interesting and probably taught me more about antsthan I could have learned from a textbook or lab manual.If it had onedrawback against the Nabokov story it was only that Nabokov's exciting workon butterflies, as told by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Coates, had an ongoingplot-- about the famous writer's life and other scientists too.But, Ms.Gordon's book was fascinating and I thought my teacher's idea to have uslearn about ants and butterflies by reading these more exciting books was agreat idea.Both Ants at Work and Nabokov's Blues are perhaps best suitedfor adults after high school but I had no trouble with either book and surefelt I learned more about insects reading these books than I would havestudying a dry textbook.It was a good suggestion by our teacher for theholidays.

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Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an exploration into all aspects of ant life, written for general readers.Holldobler and Wilson, who wrote the massive scientific reference volume, The Ants, felt that there was also a demand for a less formal book about ants that ordinary readers might enjoy reading from cover-to-cover.In this book, they describe not only the lives of ants and ant colonies, but also how their own interests in ants developed.The book covers such topics as the dominance of ants, the life and death of the colony, the colony as a superorganism, ant communication, relations between ants within and between colonies, ancient ants, ant parasites, army ants, and ants and the environment.They also include a brief section on how to study ants.The book is illustrated both black-and white photos and sets of color photographic plates.There is an index, but surprisingly, there is no bibliography or recommendations for further reading; presumably, their main recommendation would be to consult their reference volume, The Ants.

The first chapter in the book, The Dominance of Ants, stood out the most for me.In this chapter, the authors note that ants are overwhelmingly the dominant species on earth.By weight, the world ant population equals the world human population, and represents half or more of the world's insect biomass.These ten thousand trillion creatures are spread throughout the world's habitats, from the Amazon to Finland, from deserts to rain forests.With that in mind, the study of ants is clearly well-worth taking up.Why are ants so populous and successful?As the authors argue, one reason is their social nature.They put the survival of the colony above their own individual survival.Nevertheless, through quirks in their reproductive behavior, this cooperative behavior still maximizes the potential for their own genetic material to be passed on to future generations.Just because they are social, however, doesn't mean that all is peaceful within the colony between individual ants, as Holldobler and Wilson point out.These topics and many others are described in language that is very accessible to general readers.I found myself not only better informed about ants after reading this book, but also with a much greater sense of respect for such remarkable creatures.

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The Ants Review

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(More customer reviews)by Mark Fitzsimmons
This is a fascinating, indispensible book for anyone interested in ants. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I have owned this book for three years and still haven't stopped reading it, probably never will. It is jam-packed with interesting and little known aspects of eusocialism in the ants, easily as diverse as its subject.
This is a semi-technical book, and entomological scientific jargon is used ubiquitously, so if you aren't interested in using the glossary frequently just to understand what you're reading, it may not be for you, but for the avid ant-watcher or scientist interested in social evolution, this is it.With the incredible drawings (including representative pictures from every known ant genera) and informative graphs and charts that shed light on even the most complex and difficult to understand socio-biological patterns, itis beautiful to behold and fun to browse and just pluck little tidbits at random. Even the expanded table of contents is thought-provoking and fun to read.
"The Ants" does more than simply summarize current knowledge about ants. It goes into details of the many different ways in which ants have evolved social structures and critically evaluates theories of ant colony dynamics and eusocial evolution.

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