Walter R. Zinchl: Ant architecture

Walter R. Tschinkel's story is an intellectual, analog exploration of the natural world. The intellectual foundation is clear, but perhaps the emphasis falls on the analog. As a child, Tschinkel dreamed of becoming a biologist, even before he knew what a biologist was, and eventually fulfilled that dream. He earned master's and doctoral degrees studying tenebrionid beetles, and enjoyed making devices to aid his research. This impulse came less from research needs than from his own nature: he had always liked making things by hand, and applying that skill to research proved useful. Each device was designed to solve a problem or answer a question. Early in his research he bought equipment costing thousands of dollars; later he built his own devices in his garage from wood, scrap, plastic, and recycled materials. These traits, tastes, and abilities led him along a particular path of biological exploration. Beginning with tenebrionid beetles, he developed a broad interest in ant ecology. Beyond simply making casts of different species' nests, he wondered how a superorganism builds a nest and why nest architecture varies so much. For 25 years he studied ants in the coastal plain forests of northern Florida, using the successes and failures of that work to explore the unseen wonders beneath our feet. Many ants build aboveground nests from soil, fallen leaves, and plant material, but this book focuses only on nests ants build underground.

Korean title: 개미 건축

Korean author: 월터 R. 칭클

Korean publisher: 에코리브르

ISBN-13: 9788962632767