A clear introduction for the novice naturalist to all things ant.Ants are everywhere, though they are small, easily overlooked and usually misunderstood. But these seemingly puny insects have a superpower that makes them amongst the most important organisms on the planet― what they lack in size and individual strength, they more than make up for in sheer numbers and sophisticated, coordinated activity.In this book, impassioned entomologist Richard Jones reveals the bizarre and sometimes poorly studied behaviours of ants. Their aggregation in huge nests is a complex mix of genetics, chemistry, geography and higher social interaction. Their forage trails, usually to aphid colonies but occasionally into the larder, are maintained by a wondrous alchemy of molecular scents and markers. Their social colony structure confused natural philosophers of old and still taxes the modern biologist today. Despite being tiny, ants are special because they and their complex colonies are amenable to scie
“Saltmarshes are often remote, inhospitable places, neither land nor sea, as hard to pin down as they are to navigate. In this saline odyssey, Clive Chatters has explored his favourite creeks, pools a
Mushrooms, the first of a major new series of books on British natural history, provides a remarkable insight into the natural and human world of fungi. Peter Marren, in his inimitable, relaxed style,
Meadows, the second volume of a major new series of books on British natural history, provides one of the most wide-ranging and eloquent treatments of this most quintessential British habitat. Yet the
