Lives of Ants.
Title:
Lives of Ants.
Author:
Keller, Laurent.
ISBN:
9780191567599
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (192 pages)
Contents:
Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Figure acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I An ecological success story -- Chapter 1 Anywhere and everywhere -- Chapter 2 On tastes and colours -- Chapter 3 The secrets of success -- Chapter 4 A huge impact on the environment -- Chapter 5 A long long story -- Part II Social life -- Chapter 6 The birth of the colony -- Chapter 7 Division of labour -- Chapter 8 Let slip the ants of war -- Chapter 9 Flexible work arrangements -- Chapter 10 Communication systems -- Chapter 11 Family models -- Chapter 12 Parasites and slave-makers -- Part III Nowt So Rum as Ants! -- Chapter 13 Army ants -- Chapter 14 We work at the weaver's trade -- Chapter 15 Navigators who never lose their way -- Chapter 16 Honeypots -- Part IV Advantageous Liaisons -- Chapter 17 Colonies and their livestock -- Chapter 18 Ant trees -- Chapter 19 Attines and fungus getting on famously -- Part V Bloody Pests! -- Chapter 20 Stand by for invaders! -- Chapter 21 Supercolonies -- Part VI Kith and Kin -- Chapter 22 Genetic altruism and sociality -- Chapter 23 Family feuds -- Chapter 24 Nepotism or not? -- Chapter 25 Caste struggles -- Chapter 26 Anything goes -- Part VII Sociogenetics -- Chapter 27 Genes and family structure -- Chapter 28 The genomics of behaviour -- Chapter 29 So what's so special about the genome of fire ants? -- Part VIII High-tech Ants -- Chapter 30 Computer-modelling behaviour -- Chapter 31 Of ants and IT men -- Chapter 32 Swarm robotics -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- Species Index -- General Index.
Abstract:
The Lives of Ants combines natural history with molecular biology, genetics, and even the latest developments in robotics, to explore the intricately organized societies of ants, revealing the secret of the huge ecological success of these remarkable creatures, and how they cooperate, communicate, exploit other animals and even go to war. - ;Humans have long been fascinated by ants. While not necessarily brightly coloured or beautiful, ants display some remarkable characteristics that are almost unique in the animal world. They live in intricately organized societies, made up of individuals that cooperate, communicate, and divide up daily tasks. They display amazing ingenuity when it comes to building nests and other structures, finding supplies, or even exploiting other members of the animal kingdom. They arecapable too of aggression and violence, of disturbing the apparent peace of their colonies and of sudden fratricidal or matricidal strife. In short, the lives of ants are among the most fascinating in the natural world. This is an account of those lives - looking at the many species of ants around the world, explaining the secret of their huge ecological success, examining the remarkable and varied behaviours that ants exhibit, and tying in molecular biology, genetics, and even cutting-edge developments in robotics, to shed light on what makes ants unique. - ;Fascinating book. - PD Smith, The Guardian;Attractive, readable summary of research into their lives. - Jonathan Beard, New Scientist.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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