The leafcutter ants : civilization by instinct
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [139]-154) and index

"The Leafcutter Ants provides a tour of Earth's most evolved animal societies. Each colony of leafcutters contains as many as five million workers, all the daughters of a single queen that can live over a decade. A gigantic nest can stretch thirty feet across, rise five feet or more above the ground, and consist of hundreds of chambers that reach twenty-five feet below the ground surface. Indeed, the leafcutters have parlayed their instinctive civilization into a virtual domination of forest, grassland, and croplandfrom Louisiana to Patagonia. Inspired by a section of the authors' acclaimed The Superorganism, this illustrated work provides the explanation of what a social order with a half-billion years of animal evolution has achieved."--BOOK JACKET