Database Processing
of
the GAKKEN'S PHOTO ENCYCLOPEDIA "ANTS"

This illustrated book was published from the Gakushu Kenkyusha in 1979 as "ANTS" in a series of GAKKEN'S PHOTO ENCYCLOPEDIA. This book provided very good introductory information about ants with wonderful ecological photos and illustrations of ants and simple explanations.

To our regret, however, the book has long been unpublished. Therefore, under the condition that its use is only for educational enlightment, this book was entered in the "Color Image Database of Japanese Ants" and pulished as an introduction to myrmecology by obtaining special permission from Gakusyu Kenkyusha, Mr. Kuribayashi and others who were associated with the publication of this illustrated book.

In recording this book on the database, the text was inputted and edited by Imai, and the digital imaging processing and editing of the illustrations were performed by Tsukii from the originally printed illustrations using a scanner. Although the layout of the text and illustrations differ from the original text, as much care as possible has been taken to avoid changing the spirit of the original text.

Since a considerable period of time has elapsed since the last publication of this text, the Japanese names of ants and the taxonomic descriptions have been revised in part based on the latest research findings. Furthermore, this test was written originally as an introductory book for school chilldren and all of the Chinese characters omitted from the school textbooks were written in the Japanese cursive "HIRAGANA" characters. This appeared to make the sentences difficult to read and the meaning hard to understand for junior and senior school and university students and further, for ordinary readers who are the predicted users of this text. Therefore, ordinary words and technical terms were represented by Chinese characters and the reading was expressed by Japanese cursive characters in parenthesis () after the corresponding Chinese character.