The World of Ants: A Science-Fiction Universe by Rémy Chauvin

The World of Ants: A Science-Fiction Universe Reviews

• 
  Dennis Littrell

  Charming, readable and full of interesting detail
  
  This book is out of print and so you'll have to find a used copy. For entomologists, amateur or otherwise, and especially for myrmecologists of all stripes, the effort will be rewarded. Written in French and first published in Paris in 1969 and then in English the following year with a clear and readable translation by George Ordish, Remy Chauvin's book is a celebration of myrmecology--the study of ants.
  
  It is a curious book. There is no bibliography. The index refers to the great myrmecologists--August H. Forel, William M. Wheeler, Edward O. Wilson and others--simply by their last name! The focus is on the red ants of France and Germany which Chavin studied outside his home for many years; but there is also a wealth of information about other kinds of ants from studies by other scientists. The strength of the book is in the interesting details that Chauvin gives, especially about how he conducted his field research, and in his enthusiastic style. Of course, since the book is almost forty years old, there is a lot that Chauvin didn't know. I suspect that today's professionals may find some of the book a bit quaint!
  
  I was particularly interested in how Chauvin accounted for the perceived intelligence of ants. He was writing before the term "swarm intelligence" had been coined, yet his take comes very close to anticipating the contemporary understanding. Here's an example of what I mean. Chauvin is explaining how ants "realize" the size of a discovered food source. He writes, "At first sight one might think ants pass on information...as do bees. In fact, after the ants put down their dotted line of odour, it evaporates in the course of a few minutes. If the food is not of much size, and if but few ants go to it, then only a short time will elapse before the substance evaporates and the trail is no longer marked. On the other hand, if the food is swarming with ants, new arrivals cannot get to it and they return to the nest without marking the track; thus the number of ants at the source depends on its size, without any exchange of information from ant to ant being necessary." (p. 151)
  
  A very fine example of how swarm intelligence works!
  
  Another example is contained in the meaning of the word "stigmergy" (from Pierre-Paul Grasse's work with termites) which Chauvin defines as "The work that stimulates the worker." The idea is to account for the fact that social insects can construct elaborate structures without any idea of what they are doing and without a plan. The gist of it is this (as Chauvin explains on pages 40 to 44): a worker may place "little pellets of building material here and there..." And then "it may happen that a worker puts its pellet not at the side of one already in postion but on top of it... The workers' behavior then slowly changes. They tend to take more interest in this embryo building..." And eventually columns grow upwards and join. Chauvin concludes, "A small number of automatic reactions combined together have simply produced an almost miraculous result."
  
  As Edward O. Wilson has often observed, the study of social insects can shine light on ourselves, sometimes in surprising ways that help us to understand who we are and how we conduct our lives. An example of this occurs on page 153 where Chauvin (recalling the work of Maschwitz) is talking about the propensity for ants to fight rather than to flee. He writes, "given the presence of brood and a queen which must be preserved at all costs, flight makes no biological sense... Attack is the only recourse."
  
  What I found interesting about this is that before the age of agriculture, humans did fight, perhaps much as chimpazees do today in small bands. A band could chase another from a nice territory, but it would not be that much of a gain because there were no storehouses of grain or other valuables to steal. With the rise of agriculture that all changed and waging war became a viable way to make a living. But--thinking about the above--the instance of warfare increased, not just because there was a lot to be gained from being successful at it, but because the farmers and settlers could no longer simply run away. They had to stay and fight.
  
  One other observation: even though the habits and the structures built by ants differ from species to species, there is a great commonality in the way ants make a living. And so even though this book concentrates on the red ants of Europe, much of what is presented applies to other ants as well. Some light is even shown on the ants that I am particularly interested in, Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, formerly, Iridomyrmex humilis. While only some ants, like leaf cutters, cultivate fungus gardens, many ants, including Argentine ants, will eat fungus. I know because I left half an avocado on a dish one day and was gone for a week. I wasn't worried because I know Argentine ants will not eat avocados. However when I returned I found a stream of ants going to and from the avocado because a fungus had grown on it in my absence!
  
  Chauvin's charming book includes drawings (some of which are rather crude) and some black and white photos. It is an eminently readable book that will appeal to both professionals and lay persons, although for professionals the interest may be mostly of a historical nature.
  
  --Dennis Littrell, author of “Understanding Evolution and Ourselves”