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A fascinating examination of socially parasitic invaders, from butterflies to bacteria, that survive and thrive by exploiting the communication systems of ant colonies.
Down below, on sidewalks, in fallen leaves, and across the forest floor, a covert invasion is taking place. Ant colonies, revered and studied for their complex collective behaviors, are being infiltrated by tiny organisms called myrmecophiles. Using incredibly sophisticated tactics, various species of butterflies, beetles, crickets, spiders, fungi, and bacteria insert themselves into ant colonies and decode the colonies’ communication system. Once able to “speak the language,” these outsiders can masquerade as ants. Suddenly colony members can no longer distinguish friend from foe.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author and biologist Bert Hölldobler and behavioral ecologist Christina L. Kwapich explore this remarkable phenomenon, showing how myrmecophiles manage their feat of code-breaking and go on to exploit colony resources. Some myrmecophiles slip themselves into a colony’s food, stealing liquid nutrition normally shared between ant nestmates. Other intruders use specialized organs and glandular secretions to entice ants or calm their aggression. Guiding readers through key experiments and observations, Hölldobler and Kwapich reveal a universe of behavioral mechanisms by which myrmecophiles turn ants into unwilling servants.
As The Guests of Ants makes clear, parasitism is both an essential evolutionary strategy and a highly complex one. Like other unwelcome guests, myrmecophiles both disrupt and depend on their host, making for an uneasy coexistence that nonetheless plays an important role in the balance of nature.

Corrections to Seifert B 2018: The Ants of Central and North Europe. – lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Tauer, 408 pp.

In the fourth year after the publication of my ant book, it is time to announce a number of corrections. I refer only to issues which result in wrong information but do not report, within a text of one and a half million characters, on minor misspellings, where the error is obvious. Findings of research made after July 2018 resulting in change or modification of knowledge are also not reported here except for the Plagiolepis pyrenaica issue.

p. 43, Figs. 61-63
A botanist told me that the shown plant is not Vicia sepium but belongs to Vicia angustifolia aggr. There are several Vicia species with extrafloral nectaries visited by ants in the reference area.

pp. 17, 65, 68, 74, 122, 123, 251, 253, 254
I was forced to give up the intention to describe the western sibling species of Plagiolepis taurica Santschi 1920 as a new species Plagiolepis "OCCIDENTALIS". Virtually the last of some ten type specimens checked by numeric character evaluation made it clear that there is an available name for this species: Plagiolepis pyrenaica Emery 1921. Many thanks to Maria Tavano from MCSN Genova who finally enabled a loan of these types from Corona-stricken Italy.

p. 67, column "TH"
Occurrence of Hypoponera ergatandria in Thüringen is highly probable but so far not confirmed by examined voucher specimens. Change "1" to "x".

p. 89
There was a sign confused in the discriminant function for separation of Leptothorax gredleri and L. muscorum. Thanks to Herbert Wagner from Graz who directed my attention to this error. The correct function has to be:
42.642*CW + 38.314*SL - 133.942*PoOc - 10.664.

p. 127
A sign was confused in the discriminant function for separation of the Lasius emarginatus complex from other Lasius. Again, I give my thanks to Herbert Wagner for reporting this mistake. The correct function has to be:
24.63*SL + 51.992*dCLAN - 55.46*PoOc -7.557*CW - 6.521.

p. 160, left column
Replace
"(c) incomplete range overlap (in Siberia and in southern Scandinavia only lonae; in France, N Spain, Ukrainian and Russian steppes only sabuleti)"
by
"(c) incomplete range overlap (in Siberia only lonae; in France, N Spain, Ukrainian steppes and Caucasus only sabuleti)"

p. 200
Replace "Temnothorax Forel 1890" by "Temnothorax Mayr 1861"

p. 204, left column
"Distincly xerothermophilous, mainly arboricolous but locally in open limstone areas with much scree also on ground". Delete " but locally in open limstone areas with much scree also on ground".

p. 204, right column
Delete "in hot open limestone areas also between limestone plates."
Both errors on p. 204 are due to intentional misinformation coming from the treacherous master student Alexander Prosche who published a series of deceptive information in different entomological journals. For each "finding" he presented me a correctly determined "voucher specimen" stolen either from the ant collection in SMN Görlitz or collected by himself in a remote site. For details see: Seifert, B. & Sonnenburg, H. (2020): Kommentare zu den Ameisenaufsammlungen von Alexander Prosche. – Entomologische Nachrichten und Berichte 63/3 :80-83.

p. 282, right column, fourth line from below, after "Baden-Württemberg":
Delete "plots"

p. 345, left column, 18th line from below, change to
"...alates do not need much feeding..."