Download or read book The Guests of Ants written by Bert Hölldobler and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Hölldobler 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, Hölldobler 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.
Download or read book Freyinae a Major New Subfamily of Neotropical Jumping Spiders Araneae Salticidae written by Glavis Bernard Edwards and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Great American Biotic Interchange written by Francis G. Stehli and published by Springer. This book was released on 1985-10-31 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two rather different elements combine to explain the origin of this volume: one scientific and one personal. The broader of the two is the scientific basis-the time for such a volume had arrived. Geology had made remarkable progress toward an understanding of the phys ical history of the Caribbean Basin for the last 100 million years or so. On the biological side, many new discoveries had elucidated the distributional history of terrestrial orga nisms in and between the two Americas. Geological and biological data had been combined to yield the timing of important events with unprecedented resolution. Clearly, when each of two broad disciplines is making notable advances and when each provides new insights for the other, the rewards of cross-disciplinary contacts increase exponentially. The present volume represents an attempt to bring together a group of geologists, paleontologists and biologists capable of exploiting this opportunity through presentation of an interdisciplinary synthesis of evidence and hypothesis concerning interamerican connections during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Advances in plate tectonics form the basis for a modern synthesis and, in the broadest terms, dictate the framework within which the past and present distributions of organisms must be interpreted. Any scientific dis cipline must seek tests of its conclusions from data outside of its own confines.
Download or read book Spider Research in the 21st Century written by David Penney and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The result is a great increase in multi-disciplinary research and novel avenues incorporating spiders as model organisms.
Download or read book Conservation Science and Action written by William J. Sutherland and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conservation Science and Action is intended for upper-levelundergraduate and graduate courses in conservation biology. Thisbook reviews the latest thinking and approaches, and in doing soprovides a readily accessible reference work for conservationprofessionals and managers. Because conservation biology is now one of the most dynamicdisciplines in the life sciences, William Sutherland and hisinternational team of authors have selected many of the liveliesttopics where key advances are currently being made. They stressideas, point to unresolved issues, and suggest possible futuredevelopments. Finally, since conservation is an applied subject,the book's emphasis throughout is on action. Essential reading for senior undergraduate and postgraduatestudents taking courses in conservation biology, one of the mostdynamic disciplines in the life sciences. Contributions from leading figures in the field who haveselected the liveliest topics where key advances are being made.Reviews the latest thinking and approaches. Contributors cover a range of taxonomic groups, include aquaticand terrestrial plants and animals, and give examples from aroundthe world. Emphasis given to action, and all chapters have an appliedcomponent.
Download or read book Biologia Centrali Americana Or Contributions to the Knowledge of the Fauna and Flora of Mexico and Central America written by Frederick Du Cane Godman and published by Arkose Press. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
