Science: Stupid Creatures

• Share

Dr. Julian Sorell Huxley, well-known British biologist and popularizer, last week went to the ant. Considering the ways of this celebrated biological subject, of which more exist in the world than of any other kind of creature and which evolved a complicated social organization some 30,000,000 years ago. Dr. Huxley decided that the ant may be methodical, but it is stupid.

For one thing, ants cannot tell the difference between ants and non-ants working in the ant hills. They make indiscriminate food deliveries all around. For another, they allow a species of butterfly to invade the nests and eat the grubs. The ants tolerate this because they like a sticky substance which the butterfly exudes. "It is," commented owl-eyed Biologist Huxley, "as if a nursemaid were to allow a wolf to carry off the baby from her pram in return for a nip of gin."