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 biogeography, 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.
Author(s): Edward O. Wilson
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 719
Front cover
Contents
Preface
PART I. ANTS AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
1. Richteri, the fire ant
2. Variation and adaptation in the imported fire ant
3. The origin and evolution of polymorphism in ants
4. Quantitative studies of liquid food transmission in ants
5. The beginnings of nomadic and group-predatory behavior in the ponerine ants
6. Source and possible nature of the odor trail of fire ants
7. Chemical communication among workers of the fire ant
8. Pheromones
9. The first Mesozoic ants
10. The ergonomics of caste in the social insects
11. The prospect for a unified sociobiology
12. Slavery in ants
13. Sociobiology: the new synthesis
14. Sociobiology at century's end
15. Human decency is animal
16. Behavioral discretization and the number of castes in an ant species
17. The organization of colony defense in the ant Pheidole dentata Mayr
18. The number of queens: an important trait in ant evolution
19. The ethical implications of human sociobiology
20. Caste and division oflabor in leaf-cutter ants
21. Precis of Genes, Mind, and Culture
22. The relation between caste ratios and division of labor in the ant genus Pheidole
23. The sociogenesis of insect colonies
24. Between-caste aversion as a basis for division oflabor in the ant Pheidole pubiventris
25. The earliest known ants: an analysis of the Cretaceous species and an inference concerning their social organization
26. The dominance of social insects
27. The effects of complex social life on evolution and biodiversity
28. Pheidole nasutoides, a new species of Costa Rican ant that apparently mimics termites
29. In memory of William Louis Brown
30. Ant plagues: a centuries-old mystery solved
PART II. BIODIVERSITY STUDIES: SYSTEMATICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
31. The subspecies concept and its taxonomic application
32. Character displacement
33. Patchy distributions of ant species in New Guinea rain forests
34. The nature of the taxon cycle in the Melanesian ant fauna
35. An equilibrium theory of island biogeography
36. A consistency test for phylogenies based on contemporaneous species
37. The challenge from related species
38. An estimate of the potential evolutionary increase in species density in the Polynesian ant fauna
39. The species equilibrium
40. The plight of taxonomy
41. The biogeography of the West Indian ants
42. Editor's foreword (from Biodiversity)
43. The current state of biological diversity
44. Threats to biodiversity
45. The high frontier
46. The origins of hyperdiversity
47. A global biodiversity map
48. On the future of conservation biology
49. The encyclopedia oflife
50. Taxonomy as a fundamental discipline
PART Ill. CONSERVATION AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
51. The conservation of life
52. Applied biogcography
53. Resolutions for the 80s
54. The biological diversity crisis: a challenge to science
55. Outcry from a world of wounds
56. The little things that run the world
57. The coming pluralization of biology and the stewardship of systematics
58. Biophilia and the conservation ethic
59. Is humanity suicidal?
60. Consilience among the great branches of learning
61. Integrated science and the coming century of the environment
Appendix: The Published Works of Edward O. Wilson
Back cover
