Wood ants play an ecologically dominant and conspicuous role in temperate boreal forests, making a keystone contribution to woodland ecosystem functions and processes. Wood ant taxonomy and global distributions set the scene for this text's exploration of wood ants as social insects, examining their flexible social structures, genetics, population ecology, and behaviour, from nest-mate recognition to task allocation. Wood ants' interactions with their environment and with other organisms are essential to their success: competition, predation and mutualism are described and analysed. Bringing together the expertise of ecological researchers and conservation practitioners, this book provides practical and theoretical advice about sampling and monitoring these insects, and outlines the requirements for effective conservation. This is an indispensable resource for wood ant researchers, entomologists, conservationists and ecological consultants, as well as anyone interested in social insects, keystone species and the management and conservation of forest ecosystems.

A concise and contemporary synthesis of research into the ecology and conservation of wood ants, encompassing all known species.

About the Author
Jenni A. Stockan is an entomologist and environmental researcher at the Department of Environmental and Biochemical Sciences, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen. Her research covers tree-insect interactions, and riparian and wetland ecology. Elva J. H. Robinson is a Lecturer in Ecology at the Department of Biology, University of York. Her research area is the behavioural ecology of social animal groups, with particular focus on the organisation of ant societies.

Reviews
'... this book is to be recommended to any scientist with a specific interest in wood ants, be it from an academic or a more applied perspective.' Konrad Fiedler, Myrmecological News
'The volume is a great synthesis of the decades of studies on wood ants and I enjoyed reading it very much. ... I think Wood Ant Ecology and Conservation is a very timely volume, especially in the light of the potential threats that wood ants face with more intensive use of forests and grasslands in temperate and boreal regions. I am sure the book will inspire more comparative work on this fascinating group of ants.' Heike Feldhaar, The Quarterly Review of Biology
'... it contains a wealth of data so that I would recommend to every wood ant researcher to purchase it.' Peter Boer, Entomologische Berichten



Book Information
ISBN 9781107048331
Author Jenni A. Stockan
Format Hardback
Page Count 270
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 620g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 157mm * 18mm