The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct

By Edward O. Wilson and Bert Hölldobler

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B00A2MOP70
• ISBN13: 9780393338683
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.3" x 8.3"