The Queen was dead

25 January 2010 5 Comments Home » Books | Art | Misc, Insects etc.

Biologist and theorist E. O. Wilson has a story, Trailhead,
in the current issue of The New Yorker.
Here’s an excerpt and an image of two curious ants:
 

The Trailhead Queen was dead.
 

Ants live most of their lives in underground darkness, they cannot communicate through sight or sound. Pheromonal, they think only in taste and smell. The members of the Trailhead Colony transmitted their messages using about a dozen chemical signals, which they picked up by smelling one another constantly with sweeps of their antennae.
 

The Trailhead Colony, when all the learning and thought of its workers came together, was very smart, by insect standards — and, with the unifying power of its Queen lost and its population growth plummeting, it needed to call on that group intelligence to regain its balance.
 
Trailhead - illustration for the E. O. Wilson story

5 Comments »

  • Michael Sinclair said:

    The Trailhead Queen is dead. Long live the Queen!

    # 27 January 2010 at 8:51 am
  • Kathe Koja said:

    There’s a lot to be said for thinking in smell.

    # 27 January 2010 at 8:51 am
  • Rick said:

    Smells like Queen spirit.

    # 27 January 2010 at 8:57 am
  • Bogdan said:

    Wonderful DOF you have here Rick, marvelous shot.

    Btw, interesting article!

    # 13 February 2010 at 6:20 am
  • Rick said:

    Thanks Bogdan. There is an good interview with Wilson, too.

    # 13 February 2010 at 10:29 am

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