Читать книгу Ants - M. V. Brian - Страница 9

This book is about the natural history of the ants that occur in the British Isles. Most of the species have wide temperate Eurasian distributions and, though unspectacular compared with some tropical types, play an important part in terrestrial ecosystems. The book attempts to bring together much recent work on their ecology and general biology and is, I hope, written in a way that will interest and be of use to all naturalists.

A reading list is added to guide anyone who wishes to go further. No references are given and I am thus particularly indebted to the many workers in this field whose publications have supplied the basic material of this book. Technical names for structural features are explained in a series of figures, the main elements of which have been extracted from Charles Janet’s detailed drawings published at the turn of the century.

At the last moment it was possible to improve the book enormously by including distribution maps prepared by the Biological Records Centre. The information was collected and collated by Mr K. E. J. Barrett, who introduces them.

I should like to thank my wife for reading the manuscript and discussing it with me.

M. V. Brian

November 1976

Furzebrook, Wareham, Dorset