THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ANT

With a characteristic mix of briefly stated facts and lucid, not-always-completely-serious pictures, the author of The Life and Times of the Honeybee (1995) profiles an equally ancient, even more successful, social insect. Using diverse examples, from tiny specimens that colonize single acorns to ferocious-looking army ants that “eat every animal they find, from scorpions to pythons,” Micucci looks at their common physical and behavioral characteristics, life cycles, diets, predators, and ecosystem niches. His above- and below-ground illustrations depict ants at various tasks, and when those tasks may seem inscrutable, he adds a more recognizable figure alongside, such as a worker ant holding a shovel, a soldier ant in armor, or a larva tender in a nurse’s outfit. Closing with a three-sentence version of Aesop’s famous fable, plus two other literary references to ants, this close-up, but wide-angled follow-up to Arthur Dorros’s Ant Cities (1987) makes a readable, engaging alternative to the many photographic treatments of the subject. (Nonfiction. 7-9)