Table of Contents
Introduction: Ants Rule 9
1 Of Ants and Men: Morality and Triumph 15
2 The Making of a Naturalist 19
3 The Right Species 27
4 Army Ants 35
5 Fire Ants 43
6 How Fire Ants Made Environmental History 49
7 Ants Defeat the Conquistadors 59
8 The Fiercest Ants in the World, and Why 63
9 The Benevolent Matriarchy 73
10 Ants Talk with Smell and Taste 79
11 How We Broke the Pheromone Code 87
12 Speaking Formic 97
13 Ants Are Everywhere (Almost) 101
14 Homeward Bound 113
15 Adventures in Myrmecology 123
16 The Fastest Ants in the World, and the Slowest 129
17 Social Parasites Are Colony Engineers 137
18 The Matabele, Warrior Ants of Africa 143
19 War and Slavery among the Ants 149
20 The Walking Dead 155
21 Tiny Cattle Ranchers of Africa 159
22 Trapjaws versus Springtails 163
23 Searching for the Rare 175
24 An Endangered Species 183
25 Leafcutters, the Ultimate Superorganisms 193
26 Ants That Lived with the Dinosaurs 205
Acknowledgments 211
References 213
Index 217