Intrepid international explorer, biologist, and photographer Mark W. Moffett, "the Indiana Jones of entomology," takes us around the globe on a strange and colorful journey in search of the hidden world of ants. In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo. Moffett’s spectacular close-up photographs shrink us down to size, so that we can observe ants in familiar roles; warriors, builders, big-game hunters, and slave owners. We find them creating marketplaces and assembly lines and dealing with issues we think of as uniquely human—including hygiene, recycling, and warfare. Adventures among Ants introduces some of the world’s most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception. • Ants are world-class road builders, handling traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems in their complexity • Ants with the largest societies often deploy complicated military tactics • Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other insects and growing crops for food

In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo.

Richly illustrated and delightfully written, Journey to the Ants combines autobiography and scientific lore to convey the excitement and pleasure the study of ants can offer. Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson interweave their personal adventures with the social lives of ants, building, from the first minute observations of childhood, a remarkable account of these abundant insects’ evolutionary achievement.

Archaeologist James Skibo traveled to the Philippine islands to study prehistoric pottery. While there he witnessed all the elements of a good thriller: mystery, danger, sex, violence, and death.

The author alternates stories of individual ants with the research of two field biologists in Costa Rica.

Buck Wilder and his animal friends investigate a huge pile of dirt that has appeared in the forest, blocking the area where all of the animal trails meet, and leading to animal road rage.

"In this enormously useful book, a profound need is met by a profound contribution, the first such comprehensive work in over fifty years. While brief, Ants of North America is the distillation of a vast amount of study and practice. It is a joy to browse and read, and will have an important impact on the study of ants."—Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University "Two of the most prolific ant faunists have produced a marvelous taxonomic guide to the ant genera of North America. The keys and genus descriptions are succinct and easy to read, the illustrations superb. This book is a must for entomologists, ecologists, and particularly all who study ants."—Bert Hölldobler, Foundation Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State University "This book represents a bold advance in the study of North American ants. It provides, for the first time, an accessible and lavishly illustrated guide to all the ant genera occurring in the United States and Canada. It will greatly enhance both public interest in ants and scientific investigation of their ecology, behavior and evolution."—Philip S. Ward, Department of Entomology and Center for Population Biology, University of California at Davis