Ants are the most warlike of all animals with colony pitted against colony writes E.O. Wilson
one of the world’s most beloved scientists their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg. In
Tales from the Ant World two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Wilson takes us on a myrmecological
tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea the Gulf of Mexico’s Dauphin
Island and even his parent’s overgrown backyard thrillingly relating his nine-decade-long
scientific obsession with over 15 000 ant species. Animating his scientific observations with
illuminating personal stories Wilson hones in on twenty-five ant species to explain how these
genetically superior creatures talk smell and taste and more significantly how they fight
to determine who is dominant. Wryly observing that males are little more than flying sperm
missiles or that ants send their little old ladies into battle Wilson eloquently relays his
brushes with fire army and leafcutter ants as well as more exotic species. Among them are
the very rare Matabele Africa's fiercest warrior ants whose female hunters can carry up to
fifteen termites in their jaw (and as Wilson reports from personal experience have an
incredibly painful stinger) Costa Rica’s Basiceros the slowest of all ants and New
Caledonia's Bull Ants the most endangered of them all which Wilson discovered in 2011 after
over twenty years of presumed extinction. Richly illustrated throughout with depictions of ant
species by Kristen Orr as well as photos from Wilsons' expeditions throughout the world Tales
from the Ant World is a fascinating if not occasionally hair-raising personal account by one
of our greatest scientists and a necessary volume for any lover of the natural world.
