Army Ants
eBook - PDF

Army Ants

Nature’s Ultimate Social Hunters

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Army Ants

Nature’s Ultimate Social Hunters

About this book

A richly illustrated, captivating study of army ants, nature's preeminent social hunters.

A swarm raid is one of nature's great spectacles. In tropical rainforests around the world, army ants march in groups by the thousands to overwhelm large solitary invertebrates, along with nests of termites, wasps, and other ants. They kill and dismember their prey and carry it back to their nest, where their hungry brood devours it. They are the ultimate social hunters, demonstrating the most fascinating collective behavior.

In Army Ants we see how these insects play a crucial role in promoting and sustaining the biodiversity of tropical ecosystems. The ants help keep prey communities in check while also providing nutrition for other animals. Many species depend on army ants for survival, including a multitude of social parasites, swarm-following birds, and flies. And while their hunting behavior, and the rules that govern it, are clearly impressive, army ants display collective behavior in other ways that are no less dazzling. They build living nests, called bivouacs, using their bodies to protect the queen and larvae. The ants can even construct bridges over open space or obstacles by linking to one another using their feet. These incredible feats happen without central coordination. They are the result of local interactions—self-organization that benefits the society at large.

Through observations, stories, and stunning images, Daniel Kronauer brings these fascinating creatures to life. Army ants may be small, but their collective intelligence and impact on their environment are anything but.

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Yes, you can access Army Ants by Daniel J. C. Kronauer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Ecology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Prologue
  7. Chapter One: Discovery of the Main Protagonists, and the Mystery of a Lost Type
  8. Chapter Two: Army Ant Ancestry
  9. Chapter Three: Mass Raiding
  10. Chapter Four: Nomadism
  11. Chapter Five: Colony Fission
  12. Chapter Six: The Traveling Circus
  13. Epilogue
  14. Glossary
  15. References
  16. Acknowledgments
  17. Index