The Ants

Bert Hölldobler

Edward O. Wilson

  • 1991 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction
  • 1990 R.R. Hawkins Prize of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers

1. The Importance of Ants

2. Classification and Origins

3. The Colony Life Cycle

4. Altruism and the Origin of the Worker Caste

5. Colony Odor and Kin Recognition

6. Queen Numbers and Domination

7. Communication

8. Caste and Division of Labor

9. Social Homeostasis and Flexibility

10. Foraging Strategies, Territory, and Population Regulation

11. The Organization of Species Communities

12. Symbioses among Ant Species

13. Symbioses with Other Arthropods

14. Symbioses between Ants and Plants

15. The Specialized Predators

16.The Army Ants

17. The Fungus Growers

18. The Harvesting Ants

19. Weaver Ants

20. Collecting, Culturing, Observing

Glossary

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

  • Cover: The Ants
  • A photo of the author

The authors in the rain forest of Costa Rica by Tom Ray.

Bert Hölldobler is now Foundation Professor of Biology at Arizona State University; formerly Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociology at the Theodor Boveri Institute, University of Würzburg. He is also the recipient of the U.S. Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German government. Until 1990, he was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University.

Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.