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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
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THE GUESTS OF ANTS
A fascinating examination of socially parasitic invaders, from butterflies to bacteria, that survive and thrive by exploiting the communication systems of ant colonies.
Down below, on sidewalks, in fallen leaves, and across the forest floor, a covert invasion is taking place. Ant colonies, revered and studied for their complex collective behaviors, are being infiltrated by tiny organisms called myrmecophiles. Using incredibly sophisticated tactics, various species of butterflies, beetles, crickets, spiders, fungi, and bacteria insert themselves into ant colonies and decode the colonies' communication system. Once able to speak the language, these outsiders can masquerade as ants. Suddenly colony members can no longer distinguish friend from foe.
Pulitzer Prizewinning author and biologist Bert Hoelldobler and behavioral ecologist Christina Kwapich explore this remarkable phenomenon, showing how myrmecophiles manage their feat of code-breaking and go on to exploit colony resources. Some myrmecophiles slip themselves into a colony's food, stealing liquid nutrition normally shared between ant nestmates. Other intruders use specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm their aggression. Guiding readers through key experiments and observations, Hoelldobler and Kwapich reveal a universe of behavioral mechanisms by which myrmecophiles turn ants into unwilling servants.
As The Guests of Ants makes clear, parasitism is both an essential evolutionary strategy and a highly complex one. Like other unwelcome guests, myrmecophiles both disrupt and depend on their host, making for an uneasy coexistence that nonetheless plays an important role in the balance of nature.
BERT HoeLLDOBLER is the Robert A. Johnson Professor in Social Insect Research at Arizona State University. He was previously Professor of Biology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and subsequently held the chair for Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. He has received many awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for The Ants, coauthored with E. O. Wilson.
CHRISTINA L. KWAPICH is Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Pulitzer Prizewinning author and biologist Bert Hoelldobler and behavioral ecologist Christina Kwapich explore this remarkable phenomenon, showing how myrmecophiles manage their feat of code-breaking and go on to exploit colony resources. Some myrmecophiles slip themselves into a colony's food, stealing liquid nutrition normally shared between ant nestmates. Other intruders use specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm their aggression. Guiding readers through key experiments and observations, Hoelldobler and Kwapich reveal a universe of behavioral mechanisms by which myrmecophiles turn ants into unwilling servants.
As The Guests of Ants makes clear, parasitism is both an essential evolutionary strategy and a highly complex one. Like other unwelcome guests, myrmecophiles both disrupt and depend on their host, making for an uneasy coexistence that nonetheless plays an important role in the balance of nature.
BERT HoeLLDOBLER is the Robert A. Johnson Professor in Social Insect Research at Arizona State University. He was previously Professor of Biology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and subsequently held the chair for Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. He has received many awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for The Ants, coauthored with E. O. Wilson.
CHRISTINA L. KWAPICH is Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
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Book
Published 2022-07-01 by Harvard University Press |