The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393338683)

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.

Author: Bert Hldobler, Edward O. Wilson
ISBN-10: 0393338681
ISBN-13: 9780393338683
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 11/15/2010
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.78lbs
Size: 8.30h x 6.30w x 0.49d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 10/15/2010 pg. 8
Choice 08/01/2011
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2011 pg. 268