The ant whisperer
An adventure story from the world’s foremost myrmecologist, E.O. Wilson
Michele Harris
Michele.harris@erickson.com

“Most children have a bug period,” says E.O Wilson in his memoir, Naturalist. “I never grew out of mine.”

Born in 1929, Wilson spent his childhood outdoors searching for insects to add to his growing collection.

He rejected typical adolescent activities like sports and social events preferring to spend his time exploring. (Not surprisingly, he was an Eagle Scout.)

As a high school student in Ala., he made what he calls “the find of a lifetime” when he uncovered what turned out to be the first colony of fire ants in the U.S. in a vacant lot near his home. Wilson’s discovery made him something of a local celebrity...at least within scientific circles.

The experience led him to dedicate his life to the study of ants or myrmecology. Ants had always captivated him, but he chose them as his specialty for one reason. Ambition.

“My paramount and almost exclusive ambition was to become an expert in some aspect of natural history,” he says. Ants were largely unstudied in the mid-20th century, leaving the field wide open for an ambitious researcher like Wilson.

Not only did Wilson become the world’s foremost myrmecologist, but he is also known as both the father of biodiversity and the father of sociobiology.

Most of the 30+ books he authored are scholarly in nature but his newest book, Tales from the Ant World (Liveright) was written for armchair naturalists.

In the introduction, Wilson calls this book “an adventure story” and says he hopes that it will inspire young people to pursue a career in natural science.

Early years

Wilson studied at the University of Ala, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biology. Then, he went to Harvard University to earn his Ph.D. He subsequently became a Harvard fellow and later, a professor.

In 1973, he became the curator of ants at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

As the world’s leading myrmecologist, Wilson says the question he hears the most is “How do I get rid of them?”

His answer: “Watch where you step, be careful of little lives, consider becoming an amateur myrmecologist and contribute to their scientific study.”

(And by the way, Wilson says that ants carry no disease and may help eliminate other insects that do carry disease.)

Females are in total control

Wilson describes himself as a feminist, but even he admits that ants have taken things too far. “Females are in total control,” he says.

Females build the colony. They hunt for food. They work with their sisters to carry the food back to the nest. They do what must be done to ensure the colony’s survival even if that means fighting to their death.

“Ants are the most warlike of all animals,” says Wilson. “Their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg.”

Ant warriors female. They are also older. “In a nutshell,” he writes, “where humans send their young adults into battle, ants send their little old ladies.”

As for the males, their only purpose is to grow to maturity then take off on a nuptial flight during which they will inseminate virgin queens from other colonies. Wilson says they are “nothing more than flying sperm missiles.”

Within a few hours of their flight, the males die. Leaving every other aspect of ant life up to the females.

As for the queen, she will mate with a few different males during her singular nuptial flight, storing 200-300 million sperm cells. She will use those cells throughout her 10 to 15-year life to produce offspring; ultimately giving birth to between 150-200 million workers.

Learning to speak “Formic”

“Ants are a curious race,” said Robert Frost in his 1936 poem “Departmental.” Later in that same poem, Frost uses the word “formic” to describe the language of ants.

In 1958, Wilson wanted to understand how ants communicate with each other. He wanted to learn formic.

Since they can’t speak and have poor vision, Wilson reasoned that they must communicate through chemicals known as pheromones. Working with a team of collaborators, Wilson set out to decode the pheromone language of ants by collecting samples of their chemical trails.

It sounds easy but consider how small ants are. One ant might produce only millionths of a gram of the pheromone. The lab needed at least one milligram of the substance.

Wilson describes the methods used to collect samples and over time, the team did break the code. Not only are ants communicating, they are layering or combining pheromones to create “proto sentences.”

Wilson retired from Harvard University in 1996 though he maintains Professor Emeritus status.

He continues his mission through the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation (eowilsonfoundation.org) which supports biodiversity research and education initiatives that promote ecological conservation.