Empire Of The Ants

Empire Of The Ants PDF

Author: Bernard Werber

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2012-12-31

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1448167310

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Ants came to this planet long before man. Since then they have developed one of the most intricate civilizations imaginable – a civilization of great richness and technological brilliance. During the few seconds it takes you to read this sentence, some 700 milli0on ants will be born on earth... Edmond Wells had studied ants for years: he knew of the power which existed in their hidden world. On his death, he leaves his apartment to his nephew Jonathan with one proviso: that he must not descend beyond the cellar door. But when the family’s dog escapes down the cellar steps, Jonathan has little alternative but to follow. Innocently he enters the world of the ant, whose struggle for existence forces him to reassess man’s place in the cycle of nature. It is an experience that will alter his life for ever... Empire of the Ants is an extraordinary achievement. It takes you inside the ants’ universe and reveals it to be a highly organised world, as complex and relentless as human society and even more brutal.

Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors

Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors PDF

Author: Susanne Foitzik

Publisher: The Experiment, LLC

Published: 2022-03-29

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1615197133

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“Beautifully illustrated with color photographs, the book offers a view into parallels between seemingly out-of-this-world ant societies and our own, including cities, an intense work ethic, division of labor, intragroup cooperation combined with genocidal outgroup warfare, even a kind of to-the-death national loyalty. The authors’ scientific rigor is matched by their joy in their subjects.”—The Wall Street Journal Shortlisted for the 2022 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize This sweeping portrait of the world’s uncontested six-legged conquerors will open your eyes to the secret societies thriving right beneath your feet—and shift your perspective on humanity. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look. Ants build megacities, tend gardens, wage wars, and farm livestock. Ants have flourished since the age of the dinosaurs. There are one million ants for every one of us. Engineered by nature to fulfill their particular roles, ants flawlessly perform a complex symphony of tasks to sustain their colony—seemingly without a conductor—from fearsome army ants, who stage twelve-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters cooperatively gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms. Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has traveled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites readers deep into her world in both the field and the lab. Exploring these insects’ tiny yet incredible lives will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower. Publisher’s note: Planet of the Ants was previously published in hardcover as Empire of Ants.

The Empire of the Ants Annotated

The Empire of the Ants Annotated PDF

Author: H Erbert George Wells

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06-24

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781075919114

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"The Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells about the littleness of humanity and the tenuousness of the dominion Homo sapiens enjoys on Earth. A 1977 film, Empire of the Ants, was loosely based on Wells's story."The Empire of the Ants" features a Brazilian captain, Gerilleau, who is ordered to take his gunboat, the Benjamin Constant, to assist the inhabitants of the town of Badama, in the "Upper Amazon," "against a plague of ants."[1] A Lancashire engineer named Holroyd, from whose point of view the story is, for the most part, told, accompanies him. They find a species of large black ant that has evolved advanced intelligence and has used it to make tools and organize aggression. Before arriving in Badama, Captain Gerilleau encounters a cuberta[2] which has been taken over by the ants, which have killed and mutilated two sailors. After Capt. Gerilleau sends his second in command, Lieutenant da Cunha, aboard the vessel, the ants attack him and he dies painfully hours later, apparently poisoned. The next day, after burning the cuberta, the Benjamin Constant arrives off Badama. The town is deserted and all its inhabitants dead or dispersed. Fearing the ants and their poison, Capt. Gerilleau contents himself with firing "de big gun" at the town twice, with minimal effect. He then demands "what else was there to do?" (variants of this phrase are used throughout the story when discussing the ants) and returns downstream for orders.[3] A final section reports that Holroyd has returned to England to warn the authorities about the ants "before it is too late."

Adventures among Ants

Adventures among Ants PDF

Author: Mark W. Moffett

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2010-05-05

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0520945417

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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

The Empire of the Ants

The Empire of the Ants PDF

Author: H G Wells

Publisher:

Published: 2020-11-09

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13:

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When Captain Gerilleau received instructions to take his new gunboat, the Benjamin Constant, to Badama on the Batemo arm of the Guaramadema and there assist the inhabitants against a plague of ants, he suspected the authorities of mockery. His promotion had been romantic and irregular, the affections of a prominent Brazilian lady and the captain's liquid eyes had played a part in the process, and the Diario and O Futuro had been lamentably disrespectful in their comments. He felt he was to give further occasion for disrespect.He was a Creole, his conceptions of etiquette and discipline were pure-blooded Portuguese, and it was only to Holroyd, the Lancashire engineer who had come over with the boat, and as an exercise in the use of English-his "th" sounds were very uncertain-that he opened his heart."It is in effect," he said, "to make me absurd! What can a man do against ants? Dey come, dey go.""They say," said Holroyd, "that these don't go. That chap you said was a Sambo--""Zambo;-it is a sort of mixture of blood.""Sambo. He said the people are going!"The captain smoked fretfully for a time. "Dese tings 'ave to happen," he said at last. "What is it? Plagues of ants and suchlike as God wills. Dere was a plague in Trinidad-the little ants that carry leaves. Orl der orange-trees, all der mangoes! What does it matter? Sometimes ant armies come into your houses-fighting ants; a different sort. You go and they clean the house.

Secret Lives of Ants

Secret Lives of Ants PDF

Author: Jae Choe

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2012-04

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1421404281

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All of nature is revealed through the secret lives of the amazing ants.

Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants

Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants PDF

Author: Eleanor Spicer Rice

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-08-03

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 022644581X

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Did you know that for every human on earth, there are about one million ants? They are among the longest-lived insects—with some ant queens passing the thirty-year mark—as well as some of the strongest. Fans of both the city and countryside alike, ants decompose dead wood, turn over soil (in some places more than earthworms), and even help plant forests by distributing seeds. But while fewer than thirty of the nearly one thousand ant species living in North America are true pests, we cringe when we see them marching across our kitchen floors. No longer! In this witty, accessible, and beautifully illustrated guide, Eleanor Spicer Rice, Alex Wild, and Rob Dunn metamorphose creepy-crawly revulsion into myrmecological wonder. Emerging from Dunn’s ambitious citizen science project Your Wild Life (an initiative based at North Carolina State University), Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural history of species most noted by project participants—and even offers tips on keeping ant farms in your home. Exploring species from the spreading red imported fire ant to the pavement ant, and featuring Wild’s stunning photography, this guide will be a tremendous resource for teachers, students, and scientists alike. But more than this, it will transform the way we perceive the environment around us by deepening our understanding of its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt—magnifying glass in hand.

The Empire of the Ants (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)

The Empire of the Ants (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures) PDF

Author: H. G. Wells

Publisher: Read Books Ltd

Published: 2015-02-17

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 1473399661

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This early work by H. G. Wells was originally published in 1905 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Empire of the Ants' is a short story of a Brazilian Captain who has been sent to help a town's inhabitants fight a plague of intelligent ants. Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, England in 1866. He apprenticed as a draper before becoming a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School in West Sussex. Some years later, Wells won a scholarship to the School of Science in London, where he developed a strong interest in biology and evolution, founding and editing the Science Schools Journal. However, he left before graduating to return to teaching, and began to focus increasingly on writing. It was in 1895 that Wells seriously established himself as a writer, with the publication of the now iconic novel, The Time Machine. Wells followed The Time Machine with the equally well-received War of the Worlds (1898), which proved highly popular in the USA. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Ant Architecture

Ant Architecture PDF

Author: Walter R. Tschinkel

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 0691218498

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An unprecedented look at the complex and beautiful world of underground ant architecture Walter Tschinkel has spent much of his career investigating the hidden subterranean realm of ant nests. This wonderfully illustrated book takes you inside an unseen world where thousands of ants build intricate homes in the soil beneath our feet. Tschinkel describes the ingenious methods he has devised to study ant nests, showing how he fills a nest with plaster, molten metal, or wax and painstakingly excavates the cast. He guides you through living ant nests chamber by chamber, revealing how nests are created and how colonies function. How does nest architecture vary across species? Do ants have "architectural plans"? How do nests affect our environment? As he delves into these and other questions, Tschinkel provides a one-of-a-kind natural history of the planet's most successful creatures and a compelling firsthand account of a life of scientific discovery. Offering a unique look at how simple methods can lead to pioneering science, Ant Architecture addresses the unsolved mysteries of underground ant nests while charting new directions for tomorrow’s research, and reflects on the role of beauty in nature and the joys of shoestring science.

Werewolves in Their Youth

Werewolves in Their Youth PDF

Author: Michael Chabon

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2011-12-20

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1453234128

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By the New York Times–bestselling author of Moonglow: “When you read these stories, it may strike you how seldom you come across really beautiful writing” (USA Today). Cherished by readers and critics alike for such extraordinary novels as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon is at the height of his considerable powers in this striking and bittersweet collection of short stories. An anxious young misfit does nothing to protect his best friend from the scorn of their teachers and classmates. A kleptomaniac real estate agent leads an unhappy couple on a disastrous house tour. A heartbroken grifter finds his ex-girlfriend’s grandmother to be an easy mark—and an unexpected source of redemption. Throughout these stories, Chabon’s characters, suffused with yearning but crippled by broken love, often find themselves at a crossroads—and faced with sudden insight. Michael Chabon is “Updike without the condescension,” wrote James Hynes in the Washington Post Book World, “Cheever without the self-pity, a young American Nabokov who writes with a rueful joie de vivre.” In this darkly funny, achingly delicate collection, he renders the compromises of adulthood and the vivid fantasies of childhood with clarity and warmth. This ebook features a biography of the author.