REVIEW  


   Australian ants, their biology and identification by Steve Shattuck
CSIRO Publishing; 238 pages
ISBN: 0643066594

      Steven O. Shattuck's "Australian ants, their biology and identification" (paperback, CSIRO, 2000) is a handsomely-produced and well-bound volume comprising a thorough introduction to this vast subject in a mere 226 pages. Though I've never been to Australia, I now feel a sense of familiarity with Australian ants from having pored through this book. The keys with interspersed illustrations are very user-friendly, and I hope, have set a trend for future such publications. The no-frills text gives a good idea of what is and is not known about each of the taxa, and the maps give a clear sense of their known distribution. The color photos of ants in natural settings are a pleasant bonus.

I have three minor criticisms of the book, in descending order of (perhaps-not-very) importance:

1)  It would have been interesting, and perhaps useful as a stimulus to future work, to have more information about the level of revision remaining to be done for each genus.

2)  The lateral view SEM photos cut off just behind the petiole or postpetiole. I hope I never again, ever see a picture of an ant with its gaster cropped off!

3)   Since I have some vested interested in Paratrechina, I was perhaps unduly annoyed by some small inaccuracies in the treament of this genus. First, my impression from the Western Hemisphere species is most Paratrechina species have cryptic (and often diffuse) nests in forest litter, or within the fire-protected bases of perennial grass clumps in grasslands. Perhaps this is not the case in Australia, but I am surprised by no mention of it at all. Second, P. longicornis is mentioned as a tramp, implying (by omission of any comment on the matter) that P. vaga and P. bourbonica are native in Australia, which I believe they are not. Third, the comments on distribution of the genus give the impression that Paratrechina is encountered in Europe (where they are not native and only occasionally inhabit greenhouses), while their occurrence in the Americas, where they are in fact rather diverse and abundant, is mentioned as an afterthought.
      That said, I can say unreservedly that I am glad to own the book, and that it would be good to have similar volumes (with whole-ant lateral views) for the other continents.


James C. Trager