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• Of Ants and Men: Morality and Triumph
• The Making of a Naturalist
• The Right Species
• Army Ants
• Fire Ants
• How Fire Ants Made Environmental History
• Ants Defeat the Conquistadors
• The Fiercest Ants in the World, and Why
• The Benevolent Matriarchy
• Ants Talk with Smell and Taste
• How We Broke the Pheromone Code
• Speaking Formic
• Ants Are Everywhere (Almost)
• Homeward Bound
• Adventures in Myrmecology
• The Fastest Ants in the World, and the Slowest
• Social Parasites Are Colony Engineers
• The Matabele, Warrior Ants of Africa
• War and Slavery Among the Ants
• The Walking Dead
• Tiny Cattle Ranchers of Africa
• Trapjaws versus Springtails
• Searching for the Rare
• An Endangered Species
• Leafcutters, the Ultimate Superorganisms
• Ants That Lived with the Dinosaurs

"Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony, " writes E.O. Wilson, one of the world's most beloved scientists, "their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg." In Tales from the Ant World, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Wilson takes us on a myrmecological tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico's Dauphin Island and even his parent's overgrown backyard, thrillingly relating his nine-decade-long scientific obsession with over 15,000 ant species. Animating his scientific observations with illuminating personal stories, Wilson hones in on twenty-five ant species to explain how these genetically superior creatures talk, smell, and taste, and more significantly, how they fight to determine who is dominant. Wryly observing that "males are little more than flying sperm missiles" or that ants send their "little old ladies into battle, " Wilson eloquently relays his brushes with fire, army, and leafcutter ants, as well as more exotic species. Among them are the very rare Matabele, Africa's fiercest warrior ants, whose female hunters can carry up to fifteen termites in their jaw (and, as Wilson reports from personal experience, have an incredibly painful stinger); Costa Rica's Basiceros, the slowest of all ants; and New Caledonia's Bull Ants, the most endangered of them all, which Wilson discovered in 2011 after over twenty years of presumed extinction. Richly illustrated throughout with depictions of ant species by Kristen Orr, as well as photos from Wilsons' expeditions throughout the world, Tales from the Ant World is a fascinating, if not occasionally hair-raising, personal account by one of our greatest scientists and a necessary volume for any lover of the natural world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Foreword by Edward O. Wilson Acknowledgments Introduction
• 1. What is This?
• 2. Is It Dangerous?
• 3. Horns, Spines, and Claws
• 4. Masters of Deception
• 5. Warning Signs
• 6. Sounds of the Forest
• 7. Living Together
• 8. Moths and Butterflies Photo Credits Index About the Author.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Encounter some of the most beautiful creatures in Costa Rica in Piotr Naskrecki's Hidden Kingdom. This book is a visual journey into the world of the insects and their relatives that dominate all terrestrial habitats in Costa Rica through their sheer numbers, biomass, and the ecological functions they perform. Naskrecki's stunning photographs serve as both a tool to help identify the insects that a visitor to Costa Rica is likely to encounter, and as an illustration of their diverse behaviors and ecological roles. Through high-impact imagery and engaging narrative about insects and their evolutionary history, this book, an ideal companion on a visit to Costa Rica, reinforces or awakens in the readers their innate curiosity about the less appreciated elements of life on Earth. Each section of the book presents fascinating and useful facts about Costa Rica's insects. Naskrecki's photographs show the variety of morphological adaptations, survival strategies, and interlocking roles that insects play in tropical ecosystems.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I. The problem.
• 1. The world ends, twice ;
• 2. Humanity needs a biosphere ;
• 3. How much biodiversity survives today? ;
• 4. An elegy for the rhinos ;
• 5. Apocalypses now ;
• 6. Are we as gods? ;
• 7. Why extinction is accelerating ;
• 8. The impact of climate change : land, sea, and air ;
• 9. The most dangerous worldview
• Part II. The real living world.
• 10. Conservation science ;
• 11. The Lord God species ;
• 12. The unknown webs of life ;
• 13. The wholly different aqueous world ;
• 14. The invisible empire ;
• 15. The best places in a biosphere ;
• 16. History redefined
• Part III. The solution.
• 17. The awakening ;
• 18. Restoration ;
• 19. Half-earth : how to save the biosphere ;
• 20. Threading the bottleneck ;
• 21. What must be done.

History is not a prerogative of the human species, Edward O. Wilson declares in Half-Earth. Demonstrating that we blindly ignore the histories of millions of other species, Wilson warns us that a point of no return is imminent. Refusing to believe that our extinction is predetermined, Wilson has written Half-Earth as a cri de coeur, proposing that the only solution to our impending "Sixth Extinction" is to increase the area of natural reserves to half the surface of the earth. Half-Earth is a resounding conclusion to the best-selling trilogy begun by the "splendid" (Financial Times) The Social Conquest of Earth (ISBN 978 0 87140 363 6) and "engaging and highly readable" (Times Higher Education) The Meaning of Human Existence (ISBN 978 0 87140 100 7).
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1. The reason we exist: The meaning of meaning
• Solving the riddle of the human species
• Evolution and our inner conflict
• 2. The unity of knowledge: The new enlightenment
• The all-importance of the humanities
• The driving force of social evolution
• 3. Other worlds: Humanity lost in a pheromone world
• The superorganisms
• Why microbes rule the galaxy
• A portrait of E.T.
• The collapse of biodiversity
• 4. Idols of the mind: Instinct
• Religion
• Free will
• 5. A human future: Alone and free in the universe.

In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with these and other existential questions, examining what makes human beings supremely different from all other species. Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Wilson takes his readers on a journey, in the process bridging science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence-from our earliest inception to a provocative look at what the future of mankind portends. Continuing his groundbreaking examination of our "Anthropocene Epoch, " which he began with The Social Conquest of Earth, described by the New York Times as "a sweeping account of the human rise to domination of the biosphere, " here Wilson posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way. Once criticized for a purely mechanistic view of human life and an overreliance on genetic predetermination, Wilson presents in The Meaning of Human Existence his most expansive and advanced theories on the sovereignty of human life, recognizing that, even though the human and the spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different from the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "The Riddle of the Human Species, " "Free Will, " or "Religion"; warning of "The Collapse of Biodiversity"; or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T., " Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. The human epoch that began in biological evolution and passed into pre-, then recorded, history is now more than ever before in our hands. Yet alarmed that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson soberly concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Prologue: The Search for Eternity
• The Sacred Mountain of Mozambique
• Once There Were Giants
• War and Redemption
• Dung and Blood
• The Twenty-Foot Crocodile
• The Elephant Whisperer
• The House of Spiders
• The Clash of Insect Civilizations
• The Log of an Entomological Expedition
• The Struggle for Existence
• The Conservation of Eternity.

"E.O. Wilson, one of the most celebrated scientists in the United States, shows why biodiversity is vital to the future of Earth and to our own species through the story of an African national park that may be the most diverse place on earth, in a gorgeously illustrated book"-- Provided by publisher.
"The remarkable story of how one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world was destroyed, restored, and continues to evolve--with stunning, full-color photographs by two of the world's best wildlife photographers. In 1976, Gorongosa National Park was the premier park in Mozambique, boasting one of the densest wildlife populations in all of Africa. Across 1,500 square miles of lush green floodplains, thick palm forests, swampy lakes, and vast plains roamed creatures great and small, from herds of wildebeest and elephant to countless bird species and insects yet to be classified. Then came the civil war of 1978-1992, when much of the ecosystem was destroyed, reducing some large animal populations by 90 percent or more. Due to a remarkable conservation effort sponsored by an American entrepreneur, the park was restored in the 1990s and is now evolving back to its former state. This is the story of that incredible transformation and why such biological diversity is so important. In A Window on Eternity, world-renowned biologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward O. Wilson shows why biodiversity is vital to the future of the Earth, including our human population. It is in places like Gorongosa in Africa, explains Wilson, that our own species evolved. Wilson takes readers to the forested groves of the park's watershed on sacred Mount Gorongosa, then far away to deep gorges along the edge of the Rift Valley, places previously unexplored by biologists, with the aim of discovering new species and assessing their ancient origins. He treats readers to a war between termites and raider ants, describes 'conversations' with elephant herds, and explains the importance of a one-day 'bioblitz.' Praised as 'one of the finest scientists writing today' (Los Angeles Times), Wilson uses the story of Gorongosa to show the significance of biodiversity to humankind"-- Provided by publisher.

Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career-both his successes and his failures-and his motivations for becoming a biologist. At a time in human history when our survival is more than ever linked to our understanding of science, Wilson insists that success in the sciences does not depend on mathematical skill, but rather a passion for finding a problem and solving it. From the collapse of stars to the exploration of rain forests and the oceans' depths, Wilson instills a love of the innate creativity of science and a respect for the human being's modest place in the planet's ecosystem in his readers.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• [pt.]
• 1. Why does advanced social life exist? The human condition
• [pt.]
• 2. Where do we come from? The two paths to conquest ; The approach ; The arrival ; Threading the evolutionary maze ; The creative forces ; Tribalism is a fundamental human trait ; War as humanity's hereditary curse ; The breakout ; The creative explosion ; The sprint to civilization
• [pt.]
• 3. How social insects conquered the invertebrate world. The invention of eusociality ; Inventions that advanced the social insects
• [pt.]
• 4. The forces of social evolution. The scientific dilemma of rarity ; Insect altruism and eusociality explained ; Insects take the giant leap ; How natural selection creates social instincts ; The forces of social evolution ; The emergence of a new theory of eusociality
• [pt.]
• 5. What are we? What is human nature? ; How culture evolved ; The origins of language ; The evolution of cultural variation ; The origins of morality and honor ; The origins of religion ; The origins of the creative arts
• [pt.]
• 6. Where are we going? A new enlightenment.

Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? In a generational work of clarity and passion, one of our greatest living scientists directly addresses these three fundamental questions of religion, philosophy, and science while "overturning the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first" (Discover magazine). Refashioning the story of human evolution in a work that is certain to generate headlines, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to show that group selection, not kin selection, is the primary driving force of human evolution. He proves that history makes no sense without prehistory, and prehistory makes no sense without biology. Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, Wilson presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth's biosphere.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• * Violent Nature, Resilient Life
• * Storm over the Amazon * Krakatau * The Great Extinctions
• * Biodiversity Rising
• * The Fundamental Unit * New Species * The Forces of Evolution * Adaptive Radiation * The Unexplored Biosphere * The Creation of Ecosystems * Biodiversity Reaches the Peak
• * The Human Impact
• * The Life and Death of Species * Biodiversity Threatened * Unmined Riches * Resolution * The Environmental Ethic
• * Notes * Glossary * Acknowledgments * Credits * Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities". 'In the Amazon Basin the greatest violence sometimes begins as a flicker of light beyond the horizon. There in the perfect bowl of the night sky, untouched by light from any human source, a thunderstorm sends its premonitory signal and begins a slow journey to the observer, who thinks: the world is about to change'. Watching from the edge of the Brazilian rain forest, witness to the sort of violence nature visits upon its creatures, Edward O. Wilson reflects on the crucible of evolution, and so begins his remarkable account of how the living world became diverse and how humans are destroying that diversity. Wilson, internationally regarded as the dean of biodiversity studies, conducts us on a tour through time, traces the processes that create new species in bursts of adaptive radiation, and points out the cataclysmic events that have disrupted evolution and diminished global diversity over the past 600 million years. The five enormous natural blows to the planet (such as meteorite strikes and climatic changes) required 10 to 100 million years of evolutionary repair. The sixth great spasm of extinction on earth - caused this time entirely by humans - may be the one that breaks the crucible of life. Wilson identifies this crisis in countless ecosystems around the globe: coral reefs, grasslands, rain forests, and other natural habitats. Drawing on a variety of examples such as the decline of bird populations in the United States, the extinction of many species of freshwater fish in Africa and Asia, and the rapid disappearance of flora and fauna as the rain forests are cut down, he poignantly describes the death throes of the living world's diversity - projected to decline as much as 20 percent by the year 2020. All evidence marshalled here resonates through Wilson's tightly reasoned call for a spirit of stewardship over the world's biological wealth. He makes a plea for specific actions that will enhance rather than diminish not just diversity but the quality of life on earth. Cutting through the tangle of environmental issues that often obscure the real concern, Wilson maintains that the era of confrontation between forces for the preservation of nature and those for economic development is over; he convincingly drives home the point that both aims can, and must, be integrated. Unparalleled in its range and depth, Wilson's masterwork is essential reading for those who care about preserving the world biological variety and ensuring our planet's health.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Based on remarkable research, eighteen years after the publication of "The Ants", this new volume expands our knowledge of social insects (among them, ants, bees, wasps and termites). Superorganisms - tightly knit colonies of individuals, formed by altruistic co-operation, complex communication and division of labour - represent one of the basic stages of biological organisation, midway between the organism and the species. As the authors demonstrate, the study of the superorganism has led to important advances in our understanding of how the transitions between such levels have occurred in evolution and how life has progressed from simple to complex forms. Visually spectacular, "The Superorganism" provides a deep look into a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a few.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

In this daring work, E.O. Wilson proposes an alliance between science and religion to save Earth's vanishing biodiversity. The book is written in the form of a letter to a Southern Baptist Minister with personal anecdotes from Wilson's life. "Pastor, we need your help. The Creation - living Nature - is in deep trouble. Scientists estimate that if habitat conversion and other destructive human activities continue at their present rates half the species of plants and animals on Earth could be either gone or at least fated for early extinction by the end of the century...The ongoing extinction rate is by the most conservative estimates to be about a hundred times above that prevailing before humans appeared on Earth, and is expected to rise to at least a thousand times greater in the next decades." Despite the gloom of our times, "The Creation" offers a ray of hope in the meeting of science and religion.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson is one of the leading biologists and philosophical thinkers of our time. In this compelling collection, Wilson's observations range from the tiny glands of ants to the nature of the living universe. Many of the pieces are considered landmarks in evolutionary biology, ecology, and behavioral biology. Wilson explores topics as diverse as slavery in ants, the genetic basis of societal structure, the discovery of the taxon cycle, the original formulation of the theory of island biology, a critique of subspecies as a unit of classification, and the conservation of life's diversity. Each article is presented in its original form, dating from Wilson's first published article in 1949 to his most recent exploration of the natural world. Preceding each piece is a brief essay by Wilson that explains the context in which the article was written and provides insights into the scientist himself and the debates of the time. This collection enables us to share Wilson's various vantage points and to view the complexities of nature through his eyes. Wilson aficionados, along with readers discovering his work for the first time, will find in this collection a world of beauty, complexity, and challenge.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Species of the genus Pheidole are the most abundant and diverse ants of the New World and range from the northern United States to Argentina. In this illustrated book, Edward O. Wilson untangles its classification, characterising all 625 known species, 341 of which are new to science, and ordering them into 19 species groups. The author's keys and drawings, the latter showing complete body views arranged in the style of field books, allow rapid identification by anyone with an elementary understanding of entomology. In presenting all of Pheidole, the book covers one-fifth of the known ant species of the Western Hemisphere, including many of the commonest forms. Wilson also summarises our knowledge of the natural history of each species, much of it previously unpublished. In addition, he provides a general account of hyperdiversity, confirming that it is not a statistical artefact but a genuine biological phenomenon that can best be understood by detailed analyses of groups of organisms such as the Pheidole ants. An important innovation in this book is the inclusion of a CD-ROM containing high-resolution digital images of the type specimens. The CD-ROM is designed to allow quick retrieval of information such as known range, group membership, measurements, and colour. The CD-ROM thus will be useful in creating "instant" field guides, comparison charts, and local checklists.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This collection of essays brings together a whole range of Wilson's thinking, as he turns his attention to snakes and sharks, ants and hyenas. Previous works by the author include "On Human Nature".
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The dominance of ants-- for the love of ants-- the life and death of the colony-- how ants communicate-- war and foreign policy-- the ur-ants-- conflict and dominance-- the origin of cooperation-- the superorganism-- social parasites - breaking the ode-- the trophobionts-- army ants-- the strangest ants-- how ants control their environment-- epilogue - who will survive?-- how to study ants.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"Journey to the Ants" combines autobiography and scientific lore to what study of ants can offer. Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson interweave their personal adventures with the social lives of ants, building, from the first minute observations of childhood, an account of these abundant insects' evolutionary achievement.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
This text combines autobiography and scientific lore to convey the excitement and pleasure the study of ants can offer. The authors interweave their personal adventures with the social lives of ants, building, from the first minute observations of childhood, a remarkable account of these abundant insects' evolutionary achievement. Accompanying Hoelldobler and Wilson, we peer into the colony to see how ants co-operate and make war, how they reproduce and bury their dead, how they employ propaganda and surveillance and exhibit a startlingly familiar ambivalance between allegiance and self-aggrandizement. This tour of the entire range of formicid biodiversity - from social parasites to army ants, nomadic hunters, camouflaged huntresses, and builders of temperature-controlled skyscrapers - opens out increasingly into natural history, intimating the relevance of ant life to human existence. A window in the world of ants as well as those who study them, this book should be a source of knowledge and pleasure for anyone who has ever stopped to wonder about the miniature yet immense civilization at our feet.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1 Front Matter-- 2 The Current State of Biological Diversity-- 3
• Part 1: Challenges to the Preservation of Biodiversity-- 4
• Part 2: Human Dependence on Biological Diversity-- 5
• Part 3: Diversity at Risk: Tropical Forests-- 6
• Part 4: Diversity at Risk: The Global Perspective-- 7
• Part 5: The Value of Biodiversity-- 8
• Part 6: How is Biodiversity Monitored and Protected?-- 9
• Part 7: Science and Technology: How Can They Help?-- 10
• Part 8: Restoration Ecology: Can We Recover Lost Ground?-- 11
• Part 9: Alternatives to Destruction-- 12
• Part 10: Policies to Protect Diversity-- 13
• Part 11: Present Problems and Future Prospects-- 14
• Part 12: Ways of Seeing the Biosphere-- 15
• Part 13: Epilogue-- 16 Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This important book for scientists and nonscientists alike calls attention to a most urgent global problem: the rapidly accelerating loss of plant and animal species to increasing human population pressure and the demands of economic development. Based on a major conference sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution, Biodiversity creates a systematic framework for analyzing the problem and searching for possible solutions.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• *1. Prologue *2. Bernhardsdorp *3. The Superoganism *4. The Time Machine *5. The Bird of Paradise *6. The Poetic Species *7. The Serpent *8. The Right Place *9. The Conservation Ethic *10. Surinam * Reading Notes * Acknowledgments.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Biophilia is Edward O. Wilson's most personal book, an evocation of his own response to nature and an eloquent statement of the conservation ethic. Wilson argues that our natural affinity for life-biophilia-is the very essence of our humanity and binds us to all other living species.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

THIS EDITION HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A NEWER EDITION.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)