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) and the work of Brian Fisher with the
California Academy of Sciences, Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants of
California provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the
natural history of California's species most noted by project
participants--and even offers tips on keeping ant farms in your home.
Exploring species from the high noon and harvester ants to the honeypot
and acrobat ants, 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 Californians
perceive the environment around them by deepening their understanding of
its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner
naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt--magnifying glass in
hand.
