Die Gaste der Ameisen: Wie Myrmecophile mit ihren Wirten interagieren [The Guests of Ants How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts]

About this book

Language: German

A fascinating examination of socially parasitic invaders, from butterflies to bacteria, that survive and thrive by exploiting the communication systems of ant colonies.

Down below, on sidewalks, in fallen leaves, and across the forest floor, a covert invasion is taking place. Ant colonies, revered and studied for their complex collective behaviours, are being infiltrated by tiny organisms called myrmecophiles. Using incredibly sophisticated tactics, various species of butterflies, beetles, crickets, spiders, fungi, and bacteria insert themselves into ant colonies and decode the colonies' communication system. Once able to "speak the language," these outsiders can masquerade as ants. Suddenly colony members can no longer distinguish friend from foe.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biologist Bert Hölldobler and behavioural ecologist Christina L. Kwapich explore this remarkable phenomenon, showing how myrmecophiles manage their feat of code-breaking and go on to exploit colony resources. Some myrmecophiles slip themselves into their hosts' food sharing system, stealing liquid nutrition normally exchanged between ant nestmates. Other intruders use specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm their aggression. Guiding readers through key experiments and observations, Hölldobler and Kwapich reveal a universe of behavioural mechanisms by which myrmecophiles turn ants into unwilling servants.

As Die Gaste der Ameisen makes clear, symbiosis in ant societies can sometimes be mutualistic, but, in most cases, these foreign intruders exhibit amazingly diverse modes of parasitism. Like other unwelcome guests, many of these myrmecophiles both disrupt and depend on their host, making for an uneasy coexistence that nonetheless plays an important role in the balance of nature.

Summary in German:
In diesem Buch erfahren Sie, wie Ameisenvoelker, die fur ihr komplexes kollektives Verhalten bekannt sind, von Myrmecophilen infiltriert werden. Schmetterlinge, Fliegen, Kafer, Grillen, Spinnen, Pilze und Bakterien haben im Laufe ihrer Evolutionsgeschichte eine Vielfalt von Taktiken entwickelt, die sie befahigen, in Ameisenkolonien einzudringen und z.T. das Kommunikationssystem der Ameisen zu entschlusseln.

Einigen myrmecophilen Arten gelingt die Tauschung so gut, dass die Wirtsameisen die ungebetenen Gaste nicht mehr von wahren Nestgenossinnen unterscheiden koennen. Dieser spannende Vorgang wird von den Autoren detailliert beschrieben, um Ihnen zu erlautern, wie die Myrmecophilen den Code knacken und anschliessend die Reserven der Kolonie ausbeuten.

Bert Hölldobler und Christina Kwapich zeigen eine Vielzahl von Verhaltensmechanismen auf, mit denen Myrmecophile Ameisen zu "unfreiwilligen Dienern" machen. Dieses Werk richtet sich sowohl an Fachleute als auch an Naturbegeisterte mit entsprechendem Vorwissen.

Contents

- Widmung
- Danksagung
- Superorganismen: Eine Fibel
- In und auf den Koerpern der Ameisen
- Erkennung, Identitatsdiebstahl und Tarnung
- Die Lycaenidae: Mutualisten, Rauber und Parasiten
- Futtersuchpfade und Mullplatze
- Spinnen und andere Nachahmer, Vortauscher und Raubtiere
- Die Geheimnisse der Myrmecophile Grillen
- Stufen der myrmecophilen Anpassungen
- Myrmecophile im Ökosystem der Ameisennester
- Wirbellose und Ameisen
- Anhang

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Biography

Bert Hölldobler is the Robert A. Johnson Professor in Social Insect Research at Arizona State University. He was previously Professor of Biology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and subsequently held the chair for Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. He is an elected member of many academies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina. He has received many awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for The Ants, co-authored with E. O. Wilson.

Christina L. Kwapich is Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and President-elect of the North American Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects.