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Edward O. Wilson recalls his lifetime with ants - from his first boyhood encounters in the woods of Alabama to perilous journeys into the Brazilian rainforest.
"Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony...Their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg," writes Edward O. Wilson in his most finely observed work in decades. In a myrmecological tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico's Dauphin Island and even his parents' overgrown yard back in Alabama, Wilson thrillingly evokes his nine-decade-long scientific obsession with more than 15,000 ant species. 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: the Matabele, Africa's fiercest warrior ants; Costa Rica's Basiceros, the slowest ants in the world; and New Caledonia's Myrmecia apicalis, the most endangered of them all. A personal account by one of our greatest scientists, Tales from the Ant World is an indispensable volume for any lover of the natural world.
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"The world-renowned ant expert cleans out his desk, which—no surprise—contains many gems...Though somewhat disorganized, the content and quality of the writing is consistently top-notch." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[I]lluminating...Wilson's passion for his subject, for the scientific method, and for the natural world comes through clearly in this enjoyable survey." - Publishers Weekly
"Readers seeking an accessible natural history on an often-misunderstood insect will appreciate Wilson's modest, conversational tone in this brief look at his lifetime of appreciating nature's small wonders, whether found in the backyard—or in the home." - Library Journal
This information about Tales from the Ant World was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Edward O. Wilson is the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, a novel, and The Meaning of Human Existence, a finalist for the National Book Award. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson is a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lives with his wife, Irene, in Lexington, Massachusetts.
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