Jolivet, Pierre

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236  Volume 11, Nos. 3-4, September-December, 1997, INSECTA MUNDI Comments on a review of  "Ants and plants" The book, "Ants and Plants," so severely attacked in a review by Alan N. Andersen in 1996 (Australian Journal  of Entomology,  vol.  35,  p.  200),  was applauded,  in it's  French version,  by  another Australian,  Prof. R.  C.  Buckley,  in Science.  The famous English ant specialist, Barry Bolton, also praised the book in his "Identification guide to the ant genera of  the World" (1994). The text of  both the French and English versions is the same, except the English  version included many new hosts plants from Central America and Southeast Asia. The nasty review by Andersen refers to Huxley and Cutler (1991, Ant Plant Interactions, Oxford University Press, xviii+601 pp.) as a sour.ce of more correct information. I contributed to this book, and I was also a delegate to the symposium. My book, in its recent English version, was nicely reviewed in Antenna, for the Royal Entomological Society. This shows the inconsistency of  Andersen as a reviewer. In French we call thesejeune loups: "Lupus querens quem devoret!"Gotwald's book (1995), on army ants was  similarly  denounced in  a  recent review  by Donat,  Agosti,  in the  Journal  of the  New  York Entomological  Society,  103(2):  225-227.)  without any serious reasons. The manuscript of my book was given to the publisher  (Backhuys  Publiser,  Leiden)  in  1989, which  was  four  years  before  Iridomyrmex  was synonymized under Philidris, an item mentioned in Andersen's  review. It is  not the  fault  of the author if the manuscript remained "in press" for eight years. I  could not anticipate the changes in nomenclature made in  Bolton's catalog and  Wilson's books which were not in print at the time. My book is criticized as high priced, but authors are not responsible for the price of European or any other book; I know of many with even higher cost per page.  This  does  not reflect on the scientific value or correctness of a book. The person responsible for the rewritting of the text was certainly responsible for  the occasional poor English, and the page proof was kept out of the hands of the  author by the  publisher who  was unable to print it for such a long time. "Plant-ants," a term also criticized, is used by Davidson, et al.  (in several papers, including one published in the Journal of Chemical Evolution, 16: 2993-3013, 1990). This term refers to those ants that live on hosts plants, or myrmecophytes, to use a more technical term. This book has the merit to be the only recent and up-to-date review of the ant-plants known. As once said by a  French writer: "It is a  strength to have done nothing, but you must not abuse it." Pierre  Jolivet,  67 Blvd.  Soult,  F-75012,  Paris, France. 

Comments on a review of "Ants and plants"

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