Army ants: the biology of social predation.
W. H. Gotwald Jr.’s 1995 book surveyed army ant classification, colony organisation, behaviour, associated organisms and ecological roles, providing a broad primer for students and researchers while reflecting the taxonomy used at the time.
What the study did and found
W. H. Gotwald Jr.’s 1995 book “Army ants: the biology of social predation.” was written as a primer on army ants for students and researchers. The book includes chapters on introduction, classification and distribution, colony biology, behaviour, guests and predators, ecological roles in tropical ecosystems, and cultural myth and metaphor. The book treated army ants using the classification then current, including Aenictinae, Dorylinae and Ecitoninae. Rather than reporting one experiment, it synthesized biological knowledge about their collective predation, colony organisation and interactions with other organisms, and included extensive references plus author and subject indexes.
Why it is cited
Gotwald’s book is cited in later work because it consolidated a wide body of natural-history and behavioural research on army ants in one source. Subsequent taxonomic and ecological studies have used it as a historical synthesis when discussing army ant foraging, colony cycles, biogeography and the development of classification schemes.
Later molecular and morphological research changed the higher classification used in 1995. Groups then treated as separate subfamilies, including Aenictinae and Ecitoninae, are now placed within a broader monophyletic Dorylinae. Modern revisions also recognise greater generic diversity within dorylines. These changes update the taxonomic framework, but much of the book’s behavioural focus remains relevant: mass raiding, nomadism in true army ants, specialised predation and large colony organisation continue to be central research themes.
The topic today
Current research combines phylogenetics, behavioural ecology and community ecology to study army ants and their relatives. Recent reviews examine the evolution of the army-ant syndrome, variation in predatory foraging, and the communities of organisms associated with army-ant colonies and raids. Gotwald’s 1995 volume therefore remains useful as a historical overview, while current interpretation of classification and evolutionary relationships should follow later phylogenetic revisions.