Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants - Softcover

Spicer Rice, Eleanor; Wild, Alex; Dunn, Rob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022644581X ISBN 13: 9780226445816

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Synopsis

Did you know that for every human on earth, there are about one million ants? They are among the longest-lived insects—with some ant queens passing the thirty-year mark—as well as some of the strongest. Fans of both the city and countryside alike, ants decompose dead wood, turn over soil (in some places more than earthworms), and even help plant forests by distributing seeds. But while fewer than thirty of the nearly one thousand ant species living in North America are true pests, we cringe when we see them marching across our kitchen floors.

No longer! In this witty, accessible, and beautifully illustrated guide, Eleanor Spicer Rice, Alex Wild, and Rob Dunn metamorphose creepy-crawly revulsion into myrmecological wonder. Emerging from Dunn’s ambitious citizen science project Your Wild Life (an initiative based at North Carolina State University), Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural history of species most noted by project participants—and even offers tips on keeping ant farms in your home. Exploring species from the spreading red imported fire ant to the pavement ant, and featuring Wild’s stunning photography, this guide will be a tremendous resource for teachers, students, and scientists alike. But more than this, it will transform the way we perceive the environment around us by deepening our understanding of its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt—magnifying glass in hand.

About this title

About the Author

Eleanor Spicer Rice (www.verdantword.com) is an entomologist and writer. Alex Wild (www.alexanderwild.com) is a wildlife photographer and curator of entomology at the University of Texas, Austin. Rob Dunn is a biologist and writer at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys, The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today, and The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022644581X
• ISBN 13: 9780226445816
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144