Awards

• Winner of PROSE (Pop. Science/Math) 2010

Overview

"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. Moffett's 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 world's most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception. ⁊ Ants are world-class road builders, handling traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems in their complexity ⁊ Ants with the largest societies often deploy complicated military tactics ⁊ Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other insects and growing crops for food"

Full Product Details

Author:   Mark W. Moffett
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 25.40cm
Weight:   0.862kg
ISBN:  

9780520271289

ISBN 10:   0520271289
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   01 December 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Travels with My Ants A Brief Primer on Ants Marauder Ant, the Ultimate Omnivore 1. Strength in Numbers 2. The Perfect Swarm 3. Division of Labor 4. Infrastructure 5. Group Transport African Army Ant, Raiders on the Swarm 6. Big Game Hunters 7. Clash of the Titans 8. Notes from Underground Weaver Ant, Empress of the Air 9. Canopy Empires 10. Fortified Forests 11. Negotiating the Physical World Amazon Ant, the Slavemaker 12. Slaves of Sagehen Creek 13. Abduction in the Afternoon Leafcutter Ant, the Constant Gardener 14. A Fungus Farmer's Life 15. The Origins of Agriculture Argentine Ant, the Global Invader 16. Armies of the Earth 17. The Immortal Society Conclusion: Four Ways of Looking at an Ant Acknowledgments and a Note on Content Notes Index

Reviews

Packed with graphic enthusiasm...[and] provocative thoughts... [Moffett] writes with an entertainer's instinct for hooking a restless audience. --New York Times [Adventures among Ants] is hefty, yet aerodynamic. It's really good for killing ants. --The Colbert Report Take a look at daring eco-adventurer Mark Moffett's spectacular new ant book. - Margaret Atwood--New York Review of Books Superb book by a first-class writer with an unsurpassed feel for ants. --Library Journal The book itself is a fine specimen ... [Moffett's] expertise with the camera must match his expertise on ant biology. --National Wildlife

Packed with graphic enthusiasm...[and] provocative thoughts... [Moffett] writes with an entertainer's instinct for hooking a restless audience. --New York Times [Adventures among Ants] is hefty, yet aerodynamic. It's really good for killing ants. --The Colbert Report Take a look at daring eco-adventurer Mark Moffett's spectacular new ant book. - Margaret Atwood--New York Review of Books Superb book by a first-class writer with an unsurpassed feel for ants. --Library Journal The book itself is a fine specimen ... [Moffett's] expertise with the camera must match his expertise on ant biology. --National Wildlife

Author Information

Mark W. Moffett, Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution, is the author of The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy and Face to Face with Frogs. Moffett has received the Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Award, the Distinguished Explorer Award from the Roy Chapman Andrews Society, Yale University's Poynter Fellowship for Journalism, Harvard's Bowdoin Prize for writing, and many international photography awards.

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