Faced with finding a way to endure the record-breaking June 2021 heatwave that saw temperatures in the normally mild Pacific Northwest skyrocket into the forty (C) / one-hundred-ten (F) plus ranges , Mrs. Naturalist and I borrowed a technique we learned from Prof. Anthony Martin‘s excellent book on ichnology The Evolution Underground and retreated to my partially underground office and lab in order to find a more comfortable temperature in which to live.
However as nice as my own subterranean lair is, it is a mere depression in the topsoil compared to the extraordinary underground living spaces created by ants. And while we’ve known for many years that our industrious Formicidian neighbors excavate complex underground domiciles, it takes actually being able to see one in its entirety to appreciate to the fullest just how remarkable these structures truly are. And presenting such easily seen and understandable representations of such is precisely what Prof. Walter Tschinkel does in his new book Ant Architecture: The Wonder, Beauty, and Science of Underground Nests.
Detailing his techniques for creating the intricate castings of ant nests that depict their myriad Myrmecological tunnels and chambers in what are essentially three-dimensional physical “negative” representations of the nests that would be equally appropriate in a museum of natural history or one of modern art, Prof. Tschinkel then goes on to use these castings to explain the engineering skills and life histories of the remarkable creatures responsible for them.
Absent Prof. Tschinkel’s castings, appreciation of the complexity and true magnificence of the structures created by ants would be very difficult indeed for even an expert. Which is why we are so fortunate that he has pioneered this technique that he shares with his reader in Ant Architecture, enabling us all to obtain a better understanding of both the structures ants create as well as the lives they live within them.
Available from:
