R.P. Buckley – författare

Early research on ant-plant interactions in Australia was largely confined to the economically important problem of ants harvesting surface-sown pasture seed (e. g. Campbell 1966). The report by Berg (1975) of widespread myrmecochory in Australia, and a burst of overseas research, stimulated research on a range of ant-plant interactions in Australia. This book summarizes such research and presents reeent and current work on seed harvesting, myrmecochory, ant-epiphytes, extrafloral nectaries, ant-plant-homopteran systems, and the influence of vegetation on ant faunas. I hope that it will encourage further work in these and related areas, and that the review and bibliography of ant-plant interactions in the rest ofthe world will serve as a useful source for those entering the field. The richness of Australia''s flora and ant fauna render it a particularly interesting continent for the study of interactions between them. As immediately apparent from the list of contents, ant-seed interactions are particularly significant in Australia. This is not surprising for a relatively dry continent bearing a largely sc1erophyllous plant cover. Future research, however, especially in the tropical north, is like1y to reveal further types of interaction, perhaps corresponding to those characteristic of the tropics elsewhere, or perhaps distinctively Australian. Some of the chapters have been shortened and modified considerably from the original manuscripts, but the ideas and results presented are, of course, those of the individual authors.

Early research on ant-plant interactions in Australia was largely confined to the economically important problem of ants harvesting surface-sown pasture seed (e. g. Campbell 1966). The report by Berg (1975) of widespread myrmecochory in Australia, and a burst of overseas research, stimulated research on a range of ant-plant interactions in Australia. This book summarizes such research and presents reeent and current work on seed harvesting, myrmecochory, ant-epiphytes, extrafloral nectaries, ant-plant-homopteran systems, and the influence of vegetation on ant faunas. I hope that it will encourage further work in these and related areas, and that the review and bibliography of ant-plant interactions in the rest ofthe world will serve as a useful source for those entering the field. The richness of Australia's flora and ant fauna render it a particularly interesting continent for the study of interactions between them. As immediately apparent from the list of contents, ant-seed interactions are particularly significant in Australia. This is not surprising for a relatively dry continent bearing a largely sc1erophyllous plant cover. Future research, however, especially in the tropical north, is like1y to reveal further types of interaction, perhaps corresponding to those characteristic of the tropics elsewhere, or perhaps distinctively Australian. Some of the chapters have been shortened and modified considerably from the original manuscripts, but the ideas and results presented are, of course, those of the individual authors.

The guiding dictum of phenomenology is "to the things themselves. " This saying conveys a sense that the "things," the "phenomena" with which we are confronted and into which we seek some insight are not as immediately accessible as may be imagined. Phenomena, however, are often hidden not by their distance from us, but by their very proximity, by the fact that they are taken for granted as being self-evident and understood by all. Even the most common, everyday phenomena and the words used to describe them often reveal, upon closer inspection, a degree of complexity which had previously been unsuspected. Upon interrogation, that which had been taken to be self-evident and widely understood shows itself otherwise; assumed self-evidence frequently masks unintelligibility and common understanding can be a sign of a lack of understanding. One phenomenon which is extremely proximate in our times is the phenomenon of "crisis. " To be sure, one can hardly avoid the word these it abound in periodicals and newspapers, but also, in days. Not only does the learned journals of medicine, political science, economics, art, and law, barely does an edition appear without the discussion of a crisis of one sort or another within these respective fields. One is tempted to remark, along with Umberto Eco, that "crisis sells well. "l One is also inclined to be suspicious of the collective malaise of academics.