{"id":435305,"date":"2010-03-16T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybooks.com\/post\/452262052"},"modified":"2010-03-16T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:05:00","slug":"slide-show-the-indiana-jones-of-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/435305","title":{"rendered":"Slide Show: The Indiana Jones of Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In her review of Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson\u2019s first novel,<\/em> Anthill<\/a>, in the April 8 issue of<\/em> The New York Review, Margaret Atwood<\/a> encourages anyone interested in ants to \u201ctake a look at the daring eco-adventurer Mark Moffett\u2019s spectacular new ant book,<\/em> Adventures Among Ants<\/a>.\u201d Moffett\u2014who studied evolutionary biology under Wilson<\/a>\u2014has been tracking ants for decades; his research has taken him all over the world, including as a photographer for<\/em> National Geographic magazine, earning him the nickname \u201cthe Indiana Jones of entomology.\u201d These photographs come from his book, which will be published by University of California Press in May.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cAnts are Earth\u2019s most ubiquitous creatures,\u201d Moffett writes. \u201cA single hectare in the Amazon basin contains more ants than the entire human population of New York City, and that\u2019s just counting the ants on the ground\u2014twice as many live in the treetops.\u201d His book includes marauder ants, army ants, weaver ants, slavemaker ants, leafcutter ants, and Argentine ants\u2014the last of which have been hitchhiking from continent to continent to form supercolonies that threaten to conquer every other kind of ant. \u201cLike a starfish that succeeds in prying open a clam through persistent application of pressure,\u201d Moffett writes, \u201cthese ordinary-looking imperialists wear down nasty rivals and prey many times their weight in wars of attrition staged over hours, days, weeks, and even years.\u201d According to Atwood, \u201cThis monoculture of ants is bad news,\u201d for both the conquered ants and the landscape as we know it: as the Argentine ants expand their turf, they spread \u201ctheir farmed aphids all over everything, including, very possibly, your rose bushes.\u201d For more about Moffett\u2019s discoveries, see adventuresamongants.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Eve Bowen<\/i><\/div>\n
\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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In her review of Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson\u2019s first novel, Anthill, in the April 8 issue of The New York Review, Margaret Atwood encourages anyone interested in ants to \u201ctake a look at the daring eco-adventurer Mark Moffett\u2019s spectacular new ant book, Adventures Among Ants.\u201d Moffett\u2014who studied evolutionary biology under Wilson\u2014has been tracking ants for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}