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Bert Holldobler
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The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct Original Edition

by Bert Hölldobler (Author), Edward O. Wilson (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 106 ratings
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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants comes this dynamic and visually spectacular portrait of Earth's ultimate superorganism.

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. Four-color throughout, 56 photographs
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  1. ISBN-10
    0393338681
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393338683
  3. Edition
    Original
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    November 15, 2010
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.2 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
  8. Print length
    192 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Leafcutter ants are familiar to all who watch nature shows about the tropics, or those who live in rural Texas and Louisiana. These are the ants busily running in columns on trails they keep free of debris and vegetation, carrying freshly cut sections of leaves and flower petals over their heads like parasols. If one followed the ants to their nest, one would discover an immense network of tunnels, the majority of which are an underground garden in which the ants grow their food—fungus planted onto a substrate of chewed plant material previously brought by the ants. In this new look at the leafcutter ants, Pulitzer Prize winners Hölldobler (with Wilson for The Ants, 1990) and Wilson (On Human Nature, 1978) introduce the general reader to earth’s most evolved animal society. With the colony’s queen as its reproductive organ; the various ages and types of workers as the brain, heart, and other organs; and the communication among the ants similar to the communication of nerves and ganglia, a leafcutter ant colony can be truly considered as a superorganism. --Nancy Bent

About the Author

Bert Hölldobler is Foundation Professor at Arizona State University and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. He lives in Arizona and Germany.

Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson was a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lived with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Original edition (November 15, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393338681
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393338683
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 106 ratings

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Bert Holldobler

Bert Holldobler

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
106 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Grendel
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating information about "beings" with whom we share the world.
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2024
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If you have some background in biology or want to learn something new, i think you'll learn a lot from these authors.
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jks
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2013
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In essence, all natural histories are stories – animal stories, plant stories and stories of how the two interact. This book, while the story of leaf cutter ants – primarily the species of Acromyrmex and Atta – is also the story of their communications and cooperation, their air conditioned architecture and their ability to start, cultivate and protect vast underground galleries of fungi. It is also the story of the fungi and the bacteria the ants use to protect the fungi. The book is 145 pages (with glossary, extensive references clear drawings and outstanding photographs) of jaw dropping examples of how these extraordinary creatures have evolved and how they live now.

Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson have been fascinated by and observing ants since they were boys – the former in Bavaria and the latter in Alabama. They met in the 1970’s while graduate students and have been fascinated by and observing ants together ever since. They have been researching and writing together for years, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for The Ants in 1990 and, more recently, The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance and Strangeness of Insect Societies (2009). The Leafcutter Ants is an expanded and updated version of a chapter from The Superorganism, and while very similar, is still a pleasure to have in one volume. The story of the leafcutters is so complex and so amazing it deserves special attention.

As a natural history, The Leafcutter Ants is as good as gets. It is a detailed and thoroughly researched book by two of the best myrmecologists in the world. It is well organized, taking the reader through the evolution of social ants to the life cycle and the wonderful peculiarities of leafcutters. The book is at times dense with science, but it is well worth slowing down a bit to follow the ultimately very clear presentation. The book will be of interest to both lay and scientific readers. It will also be a pleasure for anyone interested in the unexpected.
One person found this helpful
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Brianna
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2023
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Bought this for someone as a gift who’s interested in ants. I got positive feedback about the book.
One person found this helpful
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Bernard Lavallee
4.0 out of 5 stars technical
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2023
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A very good read of leaf cutter ant activities. An extremely complex lifestyle and a tight, highly organized caste system.
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Robert Yanasak
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressed with what the author shared...
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2014
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I'm not a scientist but I am curious, in this case about ants and their social behavior. This one statement, one of many, blew me away: The volatile recruitment component of some Atta species was the first ant trail pheromone whose chemical structure was identified, called MMPC for short. The potency of MMPC is quite amazing: 1 milligram of this substance is theoretically sufficient to draw a trail that foragers of Atta texana and Atta cephalotes will follow three times around Earth’s circumference —and that record has recently been broken in the case of Atta vollenweideri: 1 milligram of this trail pheromone would be enough to lay a trail sixty times around the planet, with approximately 50 percent of the foragers of the grass-cutting ant still following. One nest covered approx. 100 acres. If your're curious about life, this books is loaded with information that will keep you satisfied.
6 people found this helpful
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Heath Parkhurst
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book which lends insight to leafcutter ants and their adaptation...
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2017
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Insightful read. In rural areas, these amazing creatures have a knack for stripping a young tree overnight. Rather than wantonly eradicating the so-called parasol ants ravaging my Mexican Plum trees, I wanted to understand them a little bit more. Leafcutting ants do not respond to pesticides, nor do they consume the same food as other ants. Rather, the workers harvest leaf cuttings and take them back into their expansive colonies deep underground and cultivate a certain fungus from the fermenting cuttings. It is amazing how these ants have found a unique way to adapt and thrive, and this book leaves nothing out.
2 people found this helpful
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Phil Renteria
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014
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This was the funnest, most incitefu popular science book that I have ever read, by my two favorite scientists.

Inside this book you will discover things that will absolutely baffle your mind, such as: did you know that ants have been pastoralists and farmers millions of years before humans?

Did you know that an ant is so strong that it can hold 100s of times its own weight upside down?

Did you know that ants have a road way system created by chemical trails that make our computer algorithms look like childsplay?

I highly recommend this book, I don't remember being so enthralled by something that I always considered so trivial.
One person found this helpful
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Laurence Chalem
5.0 out of 5 stars A glorious case study
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2012
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Presented as a detailed case study, THE LEAFCUTTER ANTS is immediately accessible, fascinating, and informative. Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson bring the colony right to you, including a quite creative way of showing what a colony looks like. Imagine pumping tons of cement into a colony, letting it harden, and then digging it up to see what it looks like. Well, that's what they did, and, let me say, it is quite impressive. So much information in less than 150 pages that it is sure to please the most demanding nature enthusiast. Highly recommended... - lc
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

ochiBan
5.0 out of 5 stars Previously published as Chapter in Superorganism
Reviewed in Germany on September 8, 2022
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The book is beautiful as all publications by Holldobler and Wilson. It should be made clearer, that this book is a reprint of the chapter from Superorganism.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2015
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An updated view of the amazing world of ants.
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Bohmulico
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2015
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Nice
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J Skillcorn
4.0 out of 5 stars A good reference
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2014
Verified Purchase
I'd had this book recommended to me by a colleague who shares my interest in the leaf cutters. I believe it be only part of a much larger work - and at a much higher price. However, you get the bones of what the leaf cutters are all about, how they stand in the ant line-up/evolution and the text is accompanied by a lot of good quality photographs. If you are after instructions on how to maintain the leaf cutters in captivity, however, this is not the book for you. It simply mentions how they are maintained in universities and such-like institutions which, on thinking about it, may actually fit your requirements.
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Lookfar
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a book for people that really like ants. Amateurs desist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is a book for people that really like ants. Amateurs desist. Full of interesting facts but written by different authors with different styles and sometimes a bit cryptical. If you find insects fascinating of their own right, this is your book.
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