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

A world-leading ant researcher's magisterial tour of ants' superhuman, six-legged civilization Beneath our feet, a fascinating drama unfolds: Ants are waging war and staging rebellions, growing fungi as crops and raising aphids as livestock, making vaccines and, generally, living lives thatup closelook surprisingly human. Evolutionary biologist Susanne Foitzik and biophysicist Olaf Fritsche reveal all in Empire of Ants, inviting readers to live alongside the workers, soldiers, and conquerors of the insect worldand the researchers who study them. (How do we observe the behavior of ants just a few millimeters in sizeor monitor activity in a brain as small as the tip of a needle?) Ants' global dominance (there are 10 quadrillion ants worldwide) and supreme staying power (they have existed since the dinosaurs) give a sense of scale to our own empire- building and destroying. Empire of Ants may leave its human readers asking: Who really runs the world?