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 of
Chicago provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural
history of Chicago's species most noted by project participants--and
even offers tips on keeping ant farms in your home. Exploring species
from the hobbit ant to the tiny trapjaw ant, and featuring contributions
from E. O. Wilson and Field Museum ant scientist Corrie Moreau as well
as 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 Chicagoans 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.
