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The Guests of Ants - How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,550
Discovery Miles 15 500
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The Guests of Ants - How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts (Hardcover)
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A fascinating examination of socially parasitic invaders, from
butterflies to bacteria, that survive and thrive by exploiting the
communication systems of ant colonies. Down below, on sidewalks, in
fallen leaves, and across the forest floor, a covert invasion is
taking place. Ant colonies, revered and studied for their complex
collective behaviors, are being infiltrated by tiny organisms
called myrmecophiles. Using incredibly sophisticated tactics,
various species of butterflies, beetles, crickets, spiders, fungi,
and bacteria insert themselves into ant colonies and decode the
colonies' communication system. Once able to "speak the language,"
these outsiders can masquerade as ants. Suddenly colony members can
no longer distinguish friend from foe. Pulitzer Prize-winning
author and biologist Bert Hoelldobler and behavioral ecologist
Christina L. Kwapich explore this remarkable phenomenon, showing
how myrmecophiles manage their feat of code-breaking and go on to
exploit colony resources. Some myrmecophiles slip themselves into
their hosts' food sharing system, stealing liquid nutrition
normally exchanged between ant nestmates. Other intruders use
specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm
their aggression. Guiding readers through key experiments and
observations, Hoelldobler and Kwapich reveal a universe of
behavioral mechanisms by which myrmecophiles turn ants into
unwilling servants. As The Guests of Ants makes clear, symbiosis in
ant societies can sometimes be mutualistic, but, in most cases,
these foreign intruders exhibit amazingly diverse modes of
parasitism. Like other unwelcome guests, many of these
myrmecophiles both disrupt and depend on their host, making for an
uneasy coexistence that nonetheless plays an important role in the
balance of nature.
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