Keller L., Gordon E. The Lives of Ants
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The Lives of Ants
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Thea Lives of
ANTS
by Laurent Keller and Elisabeth Gordon
translated by James Grieve
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
Q Laurent Keller and E
´
lisabeth Gordon 2009
English translation Q James Grieve 2009
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
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Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer
British Libr ary Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943416
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
CPI Anthony Rowe, Chippenham, Whiltshire
ISBN 978–0–19–954186–7
13579108642
Acknowledgments
The authors are extremely grateful to the Foundation Ernest
Dubois for its generous support. Laurent Keller also acknow-
ledges the Swiss National Foundation for its continuing support
of his research. We thank Daniel Cherix, Christian Peeters,
Francesco Mondada, and Ge
´
rard Jorland for their useful com-
ments on the French version of the text. We would also like to
express our gratitude to Latha Menon of Oxford University Press
for her strong support and expert guidance, and to James Grieve
for the difficult translation of the book. Ulrich Mueller made very
valuable comments on the leaf-cutting ant section; and we are
particularly grateful to Andrew Bourke for his close reading of
the whole translation and his perceptive comments on it.
Thanks, too, to Pierre and Chloe
´
for having gone for so many
months without their favourite veal blanquette and cheese souf-
fle
´
, and to Marius and Le
´
onore for having uncomplainingly done
without all that skiing.
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Contents
List of illustrations x
Figure acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
Part I An Ecological Success Story 7
Chapter 1 Anywhere and everywhere 9
Chapter 2 On tastes and colours 13
Chapter 3 The secrets of success 17
Chapter 4 A huge impact on the environment 24
Chapter 5 A long long story 28
Part II Social Life 35
Chapter 6 The birth of the colony 37
Chapter 7 Division of labour 43
Chapter 8 Let slip the ants of war 51
Chapter 9 Flexible work arrangements 56
Chapter 10 Communication systems 60
Chapter 11 Family models 70
Chapter 12 Parasites and slave-makers 77
vii
Part III Nowt So Rum as Ants! 83
Chapter 13 Army ants 85
Chapter 14 We work at the weaver’s trade 93
Chapter 15 Navigators who never lose their way 99
Chapter 16 Honeypots 106
Part IV Advantageous Liaisons 109
Chapter 17 Colonies and their livestock 111
Chapter 18 Ant trees 121
Chapter 19 Attines and fungus getting on famously 129
Part V Bloody Pests! 135
Chapter 20 Stand by for invaders! 137
Chapter 21 Supercolonies 148
Part VI Kith and Kin 157
Chapter 22 Genetic altruism and sociality 159
Chapter 23 Family feuds 164
Chapter 24 Nepotism or not? 172
Chapter 25 Caste struggles 175
Chapter 26 Anything goes 182
Part VII Sociogenetics 193
Chapter 27 Genes and family structure 195
Chapter 28 The genomics of behaviour 202
Chapter 29 So what’s so special a bout the genome of fir e ants? 208
CONTENTS
viii
Part VIII High-tech Ants 215
Chapter 30 Computer-modelling behaviour 217
Chapter 31 Of ants and IT men 221
Chapter 32 Swarm robotics 226
Conclusion 233
Further reading 235
Species Index 241
General Index 244
CONTENTS
ix