This is a guide book for those totally new to the art of tying flies. Until now, learning flytying from a book has not only been challenging, but often the cause of great frustration, with photographs or diagrams making even the elementary techniques difficult to grasp. Step-by-step images help a reasonably proficient flytyer understand the stages in making a fly, but for the new beginner, there will always be a gap between each step-by-step image, which can be bewildering. Seeing the manual maneuvers that take place in these pages can make the different between success and failure for a beginner. The techniques you will learn in this book are the building blocks for which all successful fishing flies, even the most complex ones, are based.

Your step-by-step guide to keeping and raising ants. Discover how to maintain a thriving ant colony containing thousands of worker ants starting from just one queen ant. Keeping ants can be one of the most rewarding experiences. Observe their incredible industriousness up close. See how they build structures, search for food, defend their societies and manage waste. All this achieved without an overall center of control - mesmerizing. This handbook has been carefully designed for ant keepers. It provides a thorough insight into the fascinating world of ants. With this in-depth understanding of ants, you will be able to appreciate the complexity of their world and provide them with a stimulating environment. This is an easy to understand yet detailed step by step guide, full of practical tips. It will get you started in ant keeping and will serve as a valuable point of reference. Including; Ants under the Microscope Exploration of Ant Behavior Ways to Source Ants Setting up your First Formicarium Caring for a Fledgling Colony Establishing and Maintaining a Thriving Colony Achieving Optimum Conditions Different Species and what to chooseAnd plenty more.

In this witty, accessible, and beautifully illustrated guide, Eleanor Spicer Rice, Alex Wild, and Rob Dunn metamorphose creepy-crawly revulsion into myrmecological wonder. Dr. Eleanor?s Book of Common Ants provides an eye-opening entomological overview of the natural history of species most noted by project participants. Exploring species from the spreading red imported fire ant to the pavement ant, and featuring Wild?s stunning photography, this guide will be a tremendous resource for teachers, students, and scientists alike. But more than this, it will transform the way we perceive the environment around us by deepening our understanding of its littlest inhabitants, inspiring everyone to find their inner naturalist, get outside, and crawl across the dirt?magnifying glass in hand.

From the Arctic to South Africa - one finds them everywhere: Ants. Making up nearly 15% of the entire terrestrial animal biomass, ants are impressive not only in quantitative terms, they also fascinate by their highly organized and complex social system. Their caste system, the division of labor, the origin of altruistic behavior and the complex forms of chemical communication makes them the most interesting group of social organisms and the main subject for sociobiologists. Not least is their ecological importance: Ants are the premier soil turners, channelers of energy and dominatrices of the insect fauna. TOC:The importance of ants.- Classification and origins.- The colony life cycle.- Altruism and the origin of the worker caste.- Colony odor and kin recognition.- Queen numbers and domination.- Communication.- Caste and division of labor.- Social homeostasis and flexibility.- Foraging and territorial strategies.- The organization of species communities.- Symbioses among ant species.- Symbioses with other animals.- Interaction with plants.- The specialized predators.- The army ants.- The fungus growers.- The harvesters.- The weaver ants.- Collecting and culturing ants.- Glossary.- Bibliography.- Index.

The insect symbol of hard work just might be a worker ant. A worker antÕs life is fully committed to finding food for a colony and caring for young. This book for beginning readers magnifies an insect that can carry more than its own weight!

Across the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions, ants are one of the most conspicuous and ecologically dominant animal groups. From driver ants to weaver ants, there are over 2,000 species in Africa alone and over 600 in Madagascar. Ê Ants of Africa and Madagascar introduces readers to the fascinating and diverse ant fauna of the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions. Featuring illustrated keys to subfamilies, separate keys to Afrotropical and Malagasy ant genera, and distribution maps, it also describes diagnostic characters, explores ant ecology and natural history, and includes a list of all currently recognized ant species in the regions. This detailed guide is an essential tool for entomologists and myrmecologists working with and learning about this diverse population of Formicidae.

'Brilliant, Fantastic and Significant' - Dr George McGavin Ants are seemingly everywhere, and this familiarity has led to some contemptuous and less than helpful stereotypes. In this compelling insight into the natural and cultural history of ants, Richard Jones helps to unravel some of the myths and misunderstanding surrounding their remarkable behaviours. Ant aggregations in large (often mind-bogglingly huge) nests are 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. Beginning the book with a straightforward look at ant morphology, Jones then explores the ant species found in the British Isles and parts of nearby mainland Europe, their foraging, nesting, navigating and battle instincts, how ants interact with the landscape, their evolution, and their place in our understanding of how life on earth works. Alongside this, he explores the complex relationship between humans and ants, and how ants went from being the subject of fables and moral storytelling to become popular research tools. Drawing on up-to-date science and featuring striking colour photographs throughout, this book presents a convincing case for why ants are worth our greater recognition and respect.