Product Description

This is a close-up look at the world of ants. Erich Hoyt recounts observations from an ant expedition to the tropical jungle with Edward O. Wilson. He introduces ants who harvest crops, raise insects as livestock, build roads and bridges, embark on nuptial fights and go to war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #622451 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica's tropical rain forest, two eminent myrmecologists, E. O. Wilson and William Brown Jr., are searching for new species of ants. Hoyt (Seasons of the Whale) joins them to explore the world of the ant. He has written an informative and entertaining account of ant societies and the scientists who study them. The author follows three generations of a leaf-eater colony, a complex society that cultivates a fungus garden underground. We meet two colonies of Aztec ants, battling for control of a single crecopia tree. There are little fire ants, swarm-raiders and army ants. Hoyt describes nuptial flights, warfare and natural disasters (floods), noting that ant behavior can change dramatically according to ecological conditions. There are stories of deception, cooperation and slavery. Readers who enjoyed Journey to the Ants (Bert Holldobler and E. O. Wilson) will find this book a valuable complement. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-A description of the life cycles of several species of ants found at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica is combined with biographical sketches of myrmecologists William L. Brown of Cornell and Edward O. Wilson of Harvard (author of the classic The Ants). The portrait of Wilson is particularly informative and interesting, presenting a realistic view of a talented scientist's professional progress. The book includes a glossary, an index to the Latin and common names of the insects (as well as their families), a chronology of the development of the ant species and human study of them, and a list of professional societies. This book will appeal to YAs with a keen interest in science or nature.
Clodagh Lee, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The publication in 1990 of Burt Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ants (Belknap: Harvard Univ.) sparked a revival of interest in the intricate world of ants and the myrmecologists who study them. That book's success set the stage for several popular books on ants, including Journey to the Ants (LJ 9/1/94) by the same authors. The latter blends autobiography with a fascinating overview of ant diversity and will be complemented nicely by the present work by Hoyt, which reveals in more detail the everyday lives of selected ant species and explains why biologists regard ant colonies as superorganisms. Here we follow individual colonies of ants from their initiation through growth and expansion. We observe the relationships among colony members and their communication system, as well as the interactions between them and the unrelated creatures that follow and/or live with them. We witness the ants' encounters with other ant species and with field biologists whose own life stories are skillfully woven into the account. Recommended for most public libraries.
Annette Aiello, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., Panama
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Solid, well written, easy to read
Erich Hoyt's work sets forth tons of interesting ant information (and some information about the myrmecologists who study ants) in a readable, useful format. This is lighter reading than Wilson and Holldobler's classic The Ants, but it is still chock-ful of good information about ants and about Professor Wilson. I found myself wanting to know more details about more types of ants, and a bit more coverage of the domestic US ants than this work provides, but it's still a fine work. If you want to read something insightful about ants but don't want a hard science tome, this is a good pick.

A CLOSE-P LOOK AT THE "THE LITTLE THINGS THAT RUN THE WORLD"
Wonder is in no short supply in The Earth Dwellers: Adventures in the Land of Ants. Author Erich Hoyt tells us from the outset that this is going to be an ant's-eye view of things: "I have sought the perspective of viewing from less than an inch off the ground, as well as tunneling twenty feet below the earth and looking out from the inside of a hollow tree." A tribe of leafcutter ants becomes, not so much a brown river flecked with bits of green, but a MayDay parade of workers with leafy banners. The leafcutter ants are among the most fascinating of the incredible number of ant species. The leafcutter's tiny brain, amazingly, is capable of storing information on local landmarks to orient it's foraging (the chess-playing Deep Blue was nothing --let's see the gnomes at IBM replicate an ant's skills on a chip the size of a dot). The leafcutters, like all ant species, use pheromones -- chemical signals -- to communicate. This is sometimes exploited by other creatures: "Certain beetles, like highwaymen, wait to try to rob the ants of their food by giving them the ants own 'feed me' signal." The ants lay down trails with pheromones that allow others of their nest to follow. Hoyt chances upon once such trail -- "the long line of leafcutters now extends for hundreds of yards through this forest, along this ant highway swept clear of all debris. Two lanes, a regular speed land and a passing lane, lead toward the colony nest, while the third lane is for ants venturing out from the nest to cut more leaves." Ants aren't the only interesting characters in The Earth Dwellers. Hoyt spent several years in the field, tagging along with Harvard ant man Edward O. Wilson in the latter's effort to catalogue new species. The author gives an affectionate portrait of the gentle Wilson, whose love for living things found it's text in "the gospel according to Charles Darwin". Wilson "refers to the tropical rainforest as a cathedral, a place where the biologist makes pilgrimages, goes to worship and gape in wonder at the full flowering of evolution, the place where life is more diverse than anywhere else on earth." A biodiversity expert, Wilson is the most quoted scientist on our decimation of earth's life: according to his estimates up to 70 species are being killed off a day, for a sickening total of twenty-five thousand species a year. After the rancorous debate in the seventies on sociobiology, the science of genes and behaviour that he founded, Wilson is back with his "little things that run the world". Ants, to the Harvard prof, are DNA on the move, little Darwinian machines in exoskeletons. Hoyt quotes the professor : "The foreign policy of ants can be summed up as follows: restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation of neighbouring colonies, wherever possible. If ants had nuclear weapons, they would probably end the world in a week."

This is a great book and I'm not a myrmecologist
This book was very entertaining and I learned a lot about a few types of ants. The ant perspective was kind of a cool way to present the information. He does a good job of presenting ants and their ecological importance without getting so technical that it sounds like a paper in ecology. He did focus on Costa Rica but how can you blame somebody for doing that. I really got into it. The way he divided the story between the ants and the ant guys, E. O. Wilson namely, was a nice change of pace. It reads fast and the glossaries in the back help with any terms that aren't familiar. I really enjoy it. Buy the book, you'll learn lots and you will be entertained at the same time.