The EARTH DWELLERS: Adventures in the Land of Ants

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for anyone who's ever wondered about ants
Review: A solid look into the world of ants, Hoyt uses an interesting and engaging mix of dramatic narrative and more traditional discussion. At least half of the book contains the trappings of a novel, tracking the lives of individual ants and colonies as they exemplify points in his discourse. He also, less successfully, maintains this device when discussing ant god Edward Wilson, who is legendary among myrmecologists everywhere. Readers are invited to identify with the leafcutter scout who eventually sacrifices her life in service of her queen, or the two enormous bullet ants who slowly wind up their tales after their colony is destroyed. The book explores the mating cycle of the ants, the relationships between individuals within the colonies, the relationships between different colonies of the same or different species, and the way that ants deal with adverse environmental conditions. He also touches on the relationship of ants to the larger ecosystem that surrounds it, and gives the reader the theoretical knowledge necessary to see an ant colony as a superorganism.
The Good and the Bad:
I really enjoyed this book. The scientific discussion was easy for me to follow as a layman, and the narratives were very engaging and even exciting in parts. Even though I've read one or two other books on ants, this is the first time that I've walked away feeling as though I have a good handle on what ants are, and what they mean to the world. What's more, I put the book down caring about ants, and wanting to observe them in their natural habitat. I think it's safe to say that I will never walk past an ant on the sidewalk without devoting a moment's thought to what that ant is up to. Hoyt also gives a good cross section of species that exemplify all of the oddities that are the mark of a highly diverse and evolved group of insects, and I liked that he explored some of the non-obvious issues that come up when studying ants. For example, he talks a bit about how ant species are named, and how researchers collect the ants they study.
I also appreciated the drawings that were included throughout the text, and the quotations that kick off each chapter. Little touches like this make the journey more fun.
On the downside, Hoyt makes the mistake of devoting a lot of space to discuss Wilson and myrmecological colleague William Brown. I enjoyed the facts, but I just felt that Hoyt was too close to these subjects to portray them objectively. Two scientific giants who are very active in their field can't be treated objectively by a science writer who has a personal relationship with them, in my opinion. As a result, we as readers are subjected to a lot of compliments and almost no criticisms of Wilson and Brown, and we also have to hear about their side of the story in scientific controversies. It's not that I didn't find the topics interesting; I just question whether I was reading a colored version of the truth.
What I learned:
So much that it can't be capsulized, but I will note a couple of interesting ant facts that stuck with me. Ants enter into a series of complex interdependent relationships with the animals and plants around them. Birds and other predators might track a marching column of army ants in order to benefit from the flood of escaping prey. Beetles disguise themselves as ants in order to gain access to their homes. Aphids are kept as cows, and protected in exchange. Mites attach themselves to the feet of ants, giving the ants extra climbing power. Trees attract ants with food and shelter, in exchange for which the ant colony will keep more damaging foragers away. Leafcutter ants collect bits of leaves by the thousands, but they don't eat them. Instead, they use them as mulch to grow a certain kind of fungus, which they do eat. When a queen leaves a colony to found her own new colony, she places a bit of fungus beneath her tongue and uses it to start a new garden. If she forgets to do this, or the new fungus doesn't grow, she will die. Amazon ants can't do anything for themselves, but they can raid other colonies, stealing the pupae to raise as slave workers. Without the slaves, the Amazons couldn't even feed themselves.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent in general, but falters at times.
Review: As a lifelong myrmecophile I get quite excited at the rare appearance of a new ant-book in any local bookshop. Thus, I opened this one ready to be impressed immediately. In general, I was not too disappointed. The perspective of the book, which shifts from that of the ants to that of the professional myrmecologist, is a little different from that of the usual tome. When written from the perspective of the Costa Rican ant species, which are its central study, the book works well and gives an insight into the lives of the Carpenters, Leaf Cutters, Fire and Army ants which is both entertaining and informative. However, the book also observes the lives of the eminent scientists involved in an exhaustive study of Costa Rican ant species. I found these diversions less interesting. I wanted a book on ants and for eighty per cent of the time that is what I got. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Solid, well written, easy to read
Review: Erich Hoyt's work sets forth tons of interesting ant information (and some information about the myrmecologists who study ants) in a readable, useful format. This is lighter reading than Wilson and Holldobler's classic The Ants, but it is still chock-ful of good information about ants and about Professor Wilson. I found myself wanting to know more details about more types of ants, and a bit more coverage of the domestic US ants than this work provides, but it's still a fine work. If you want to read something insightful about ants but don't want a hard science tome, this is a good pick.

Rating:
Summary: Solid, well written, easy to read
Review: Erich Hoyt's work sets forth tons of interesting ant information (and some information about the myrmecologists who study ants) in a readable, useful format. This is lighter reading than Wilson and Holldobler's classic The Ants, but it is still chock-ful of good information about ants and about Professor Wilson. I found myself wanting to know more details about more types of ants, and a bit more coverage of the domestic US ants than this work provides, but it's still a fine work. If you want to read something insightful about ants but don't want a hard science tome, this is a good pick.

Rating:
Summary: Slaves, gardeners and warriors
Review: Hoyt, a nature writer who made his reputation writing about whales, turns his lively narrative and organizational skills to the world of ants. He succeeds in capturing the ants' eye view so vividly that readers may never consider these creatures beneath their notice again.

Focusing primarily on colonies in the rain forest preserve of La Selva, Costa Rica, Hoyt reveals the daily habits and life cycles of leafcutters, swarm raiders, fire ants, aztecs, bullets, weavers and more, and relates these habits to ant species worldwide.

Chemicals rule the ant world. Hoyt demonstrates this through specifics - the leaf cutter scout laying a pheromone trail to a new type of leaf, the foreign male swarm raider gaining access to a virgin queen by acquiring the scent of her colony, threatened workers releasing clouds of soldier-recruitment chemicals, ant slaves adoring their conquerors by aid of propaganda gas. He details the laboratory experiments of scientists confirming ant recognition and communication by scent.

Taking us inside the leaf cutter colony, Hoyt explores its architecture and gardens. The leafcutters feed their fungus gardens with the leaf bits they harvest - the fungus cannot survive without ant propogation. He provides many fascinating examples of symbiosis, from the aphid cattle protected and milked, to beetles which acquire a colony's scent and live within it, to the cecropia tree which provides food and habitat in return for ant patrols which keep the fast growing tree free of other insects and encroaching greenery like strangler figs.

One chapter explores several varieties of ant reproduction from the laying of the royal brood eggs to their care and feeding and finally the nuptial flights or, in the case of swarm raiders, colony division with workers adhering to a favored queen until only two factions are left.

Hoyt returns to specific colonies again and again. He follows a virgin leafcutter queen from her first nearly disastrous flight in heavy rains to her long wait for a clear day (during which time other colonies are washed away and the leafcutters themselves forced to higher ground) to a second successful flight and the arduous task of beginning a new colony - each step tense with danger few of the royals survive.

From these anecdotal foundations, Hoyt branches out to discuss theories of evolution, behavior and communication, the scientists who work at developing the theories, and examples from other ant colonies world wide.

He devotes another chapter to war and slave making. As a cecropia tree grows to maturity (at eight inches a month) the aztec colonies war to the death until only one is left to reign supreme. Amazon ants do nothing well but fight. They fight to get slaves who do all the work of the colony, from feeding the individual amazons to caring for the brood. When a scientist removed the slaves from a colony the amazons deteriorated rapidly although they did begin, ineptly, to work for themselves.

Hoyt's book is filled with these kinds of fascinating illustrations of behavior and biology. His ants'-eye-view or day-in-the-life approach takes years of ant research and personalizes it, making reader identification more complete. Less fascinating, ironically, is his up-close and personal view of the scientists themselves.

Finally, most readers will close the book wishing that Hoyt would do for our northeast backyard ants what he's done for the rain forest species of Costa Rica.

Rating:
Summary: This is a great book and I'm not a myrmecologist
Review: This book was very entertaining and I learned a lot about a few types of ants. The ant perspective was kind of a cool way to present the information. He does a good job of presenting ants and their ecological importance without getting so technical that it sounds like a paper in ecology. He did focus on Costa Rica but how can you blame somebody for doing that. I really got into it. The way he divided the story between the ants and the ant guys, E. O. Wilson namely, was a nice change of pace. It reads fast and the glossaries in the back help with any terms that aren't familiar. I really enjoy it. Buy the book, you'll learn lots and you will be entertained at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: A CLOSE-P LOOK AT THE "THE LITTLE THINGS THAT RUN THE WORLD"
Review: Wonder is in no short supply in The Earth Dwellers: Adventures in the Land of Ants. Author Erich Hoyt tells us from the outset that this is going to be an ant's-eye view of things: "I have sought the perspective of viewing from less than an inch off the ground, as well as tunneling twenty feet below the earth and looking out from the inside of a hollow tree." A tribe of leafcutter ants becomes, not so much a brown river flecked with bits of green, but a MayDay parade of workers with leafy banners. The leafcutter ants are among the most fascinating of the incredible number of ant species. The leafcutter's tiny brain, amazingly, is capable of storing information on local landmarks to orient it's foraging (the chess-playing Deep Blue was nothing --let's see the gnomes at IBM replicate an ant's skills on a chip the size of a dot). The leafcutters, like all ant species, use pheromones -- chemical signals -- to communicate. This is sometimes exploited by other creatures: "Certain beetles, like highwaymen, wait to try to rob the ants of their food by giving them the ants own 'feed me' signal." The ants lay down trails with pheromones that allow others of their nest to follow. Hoyt chances upon once such trail -- "the long line of leafcutters now extends for hundreds of yards through this forest, along this ant highway swept clear of all debris. Two lanes, a regular speed land and a passing lane, lead toward the colony nest, while the third lane is for ants venturing out from the nest to cut more leaves." Ants aren't the only interesting characters in The Earth Dwellers. Hoyt spent several years in the field, tagging along with Harvard ant man Edward O. Wilson in the latter's effort to catalogue new species. The author gives an affectionate portrait of the gentle Wilson, whose love for living things found it's text in "the gospel according to Charles Darwin". Wilson "refers to the tropical rainforest as a cathedral, a place where the biologist makes pilgrimages, goes to worship and gape in wonder at the full flowering of evolution, the place where life is more diverse than anywhere else on earth." A biodiversity expert, Wilson is the most quoted scientist on our decimation of earth's life: according to his estimates up to 70 species are being killed off a day, for a sickening total of twenty-five thousand species a year. After the rancorous debate in the seventies on sociobiology, the science of genes and behaviour that he founded, Wilson is back with his "little things that run the world". Ants, to the Harvard prof, are DNA on the move, little Darwinian machines in exoskeletons. Hoyt quotes the professor : "The foreign policy of ants can be summed up as follows: restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation of neighbouring colonies, wherever possible. If ants had nuclear weapons, they would probably end the world in a week."