The Behavioural Ecology Of Ants

Author : J.H. Sudd
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400931239
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Behavioural Ecology of Ants written by J.H. Sudd and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with two problems: how eusociality, in which one individual forgoes reproduction to enhance the reproduction of a nestmate, could evolve under natural selection, and why it is found only in some insects-termites, ants and some bees and wasps. Although eusociality is apparently confined to insects, it has evolved a number of times in a single order of insects, the Hymenoptera. W. Hamilton's hypothesis, that the unusual haplodiploid mechanism of sex determination in the Hymenoptera singled this order out, still seems to have great explanatory power in the study of social ants. We believe that the direction, indeed confinement, of social altruism to close kin is the mainspring of social life in an ant colony, and the alternative explanatory schemes of, for example, parental manipu lation, should rightly be seen to operate within a system based on the selective support of kin. To control the flow of resources within their colony all its members resort to manipulations of their nestmates: parental manipulation of offspring is only one facet of a complex web of manipul ation, exploitation and competition for resources within the colony. The political intrigues extend outside the bounds of the colony, to insects and plants which have mutualistic relations with ants. In eusociality some individuals (sterile workers) do not pass their genes to a new generation directly. Instead, they tend the offspring of a close relation (in the simplest case their mother).

Author : John Hilton Sudd
Publisher : Chapman & Hall
ISBN 13 : 9780412015717
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Behavioural Ecology of Ants written by John Hilton Sudd and published by Chapman & Hall. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Deborah M. Gordon
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400835445
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ant Encounters written by Deborah M. Gordon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. Ant Encounters provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective. Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems. Ant Encounters sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.

Author : Andrew F.G. Bourke
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691206899
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Social Evolution in Ants written by Andrew F.G. Bourke and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biologists since Darwin have been intrigued and confounded by the complex issues involved in the evolution and ecology of the social behavior of insects. The self-sacrifice of sterile workers in ant colonies has been particularly difficult for evolutionary biologists to explain. In this important new book, Andrew Bourke and Nigel Franks not only present a detailed overview of the current state of scientific knowledge about social evolution in ants, but also show how studies on ants have contributed to an understanding of many fundamental topics in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology. One of the substantial contributions of Social Evolution in Ants is its clear explanation of kin selection theory and sex ratio theory and their applications to social evolution in insects. Working to dispel lingering skepticism about the validity of kin selection and, more broadly, of "selfish gene" theory, Bourke and Franks show how these ideas underpin the evolution of both cooperation and conflict within ant societies. In addition, using simple algebra, they provide detailed explanations of key mathematical models. Finally, the authors discuss two relatively little-known topics in ant social biology: life history strategy and mating systems. This comprehensive, up-to-date, and well-referenced work will appeal to all researchers in social insect biology and to scholars and students in the fields of entomology, behavioral ecology, and evolution.

Author : Lori Lach
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199544638
Total Pages : 429 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ant Ecology written by Lori Lach and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible global diversity of ants, and their important ecological roles, mean that we cannot ignore the significance of ants in ecological systems. Ant Ecology takes the reader on a journey of discovery from the beginnings of ants many hundreds of thousands of years ago, through to the makings of present day distributions.

Author : Nathan James Sanders
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book From Colonies to Communities written by Nathan James Sanders and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Deborah M. Gordon
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691232156
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Ecology of Collective Behavior written by Deborah M. Gordon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking new perspective on collective behavior across biological systems Collective behavior is everywhere in nature, from gene transcription and cancer cells to ant colonies and human societies. It operates without central control, using local interactions among participants to allow groups to adjust to changing conditions. The Ecology of Collective Behavior brings together ideas from evolutionary biology, network science, and dynamical systems to present an ecological approach to understanding how the interactions of individuals generate collective outcomes. Deborah Gordon argues that the starting point for explaining how collective behavior works in any natural system is to consider how it changes in relation to the changing world around it. She shows how feedback use—the means by which networks of interactions operate—and the organization of interaction networks evolve to reflect the stability and demands of the environment. Ant colonies function collectively, and the enormous diversity of species in different habitats provides opportunities to look for general ecological patterns. Through an in-depth comparison of ant species, Gordon identifies broad trends in how the diversity of collective behavior in many other collective systems reflects the dynamics of the environment. Shedding light on how individual actions give rise to group behavior, The Ecology of Collective Behavior explains the evolution of collective behavior through innovation in participant interactions, offering new insights into how collective responses function in changing conditions.

Author : Andrew James Beattie
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521252814
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Evolutionary Ecology of Ant-Plant Mutualisms written by Andrew James Beattie and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1985-11-29 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important work explores the natural history, experimental approach, and integration of evolutionary and ecological literature of ant-plant mutualisms.

Author : Victor Rico-Gray
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226713547
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions written by Victor Rico-Gray and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ants are probably the most dominant insect group on Earth, representing ten to fifteen percent of animal biomass in terrestrial ecosystems. Flowering plants, meanwhile, owe their evolutionary success to an array of interspecific interactions—such as pollination, seed dispersal, and herbivory—that have helped to shape their great diversity. The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions brings together findings from the scientific literature on the coevolution of ants and plants to provide a better understanding of the unparalleled success of these two remarkable groups, of interspecific interactions in general, and ultimately of terrestrial biological communities. The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions synthesizes the dynamics of ant-plant interactions, including the sources of variation in their outcomes. Victor Rico-Gray and Paulo S. Oliveira capture both the emerging appreciation of the importance of these interactions within ecosystems and the developing approaches that place studies of these interactions into a broader ecological and evolutionary context. The collaboration of two internationally renowned scientists, The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions will become a standard reference for understanding the complex interactions between these two taxa.

Author : Mark Jason Freeland Brown
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Encounters Between Colonies and the Behavioral Ecology of Seed-harvesting Ants written by Mark Jason Freeland Brown and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: