Recherches sur les moeurs des fourmis indigènes

Huber, P.; Langton, Thomas

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.39744

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Slave-making in ants (dulosis) has fascinated scientists and the public ever since its first detailed description almost 200 years ago (Huber, 1810). For example, Charles Darwin dedicated several pages of his groundbreaking book 'On the origin of species' to the complex behavior of slave-making ants during slave raids (Darwin, 1859).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Six origins of slavery in formicoxenine ants

et al. 2005

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Slave-making (dulotic) ants have long fascinated biologists because of their intriguing behavior and highly specialized lifestyle. Dulosis evolved convergently several times within the two ant subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae. Here, we demonstrate that it originated at least six times independently within the small myrmicine tribe Formicoxenini alone. Our phylogenetic trees, based on 1386 base pairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene, document different degrees of genetic divergence between different monophyla of slave-makers and their host species, which suggests that they evolved from non-parasitic Formicoxenini at different times. Two nearctic slave-makers, Temnothorax duloticus and a new species still to be formally described, appear to be of particularly recent origin. In contrast, the other parasitic monophyla clearly diverged much earlier from their nonparasitic ancestors and have a much longer evolutionary history.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Six origins of slavery in formicoxenine ants

et al. 2005

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“…239 -242 and 447 -450). Ants were forever waving their antennae at one another and touching them together; early in the early nineteenth century, Pierre Huber had concluded that this must be a form of communication (Huber, 1810). At the turn of the twentieth century, many researchers pointed to Huber as the pioneer of antennal language.…”

Section: Auguste Forel and The Social Stomachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brave new worlds: Trophallaxis and the origin of society in the early twentieth century

Sleigh

2002

J History Behavioral Science

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Trophallaxis, the process of feeding by mutual regurgitation amongst insects, was named by the North American entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1918. I argue that entomologists, both before and after 1918, saw mutual feeding as an integral part of the behavioral whole of the nest, and moreover related its explanatory power to theories about human society. In particular, feeding behavior was seen as the key to the riddle of the origin of sociality. I show how entomologists' precise interpretations of trophallaxis varied and explore the increasingly functional, sociological, and economic constructions of the phenomenon that they developed-without breaking with earlier tradition-into the early 1930s. The article ends by demonstrating how Aldous Huxley's bleak vision of humanity in the novel Brave New World, and its ambiguous prescription for meaningful life amidst the trappings of modernity, has much in common with metaphors generated by those studying ants.

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“…Der von Wheeler allen Soziologen empfohlene Ebenenwechsel vom Einzelindividuum zur Gesellschaft lässt ein Problem der älteren Myrmekologie als obsolet zurück, das Pierre Huber in seinem klassischen Werk Sur les moeurs des fourmis von 1810 in die Frage gefasst hat, wie die Ameise eigentlich "entscheide". 85 Nutzt sie ihre eigene "Intelligenz"? Oder handelt sie wie ein "Automat", der tut, wozu er bestimmt ist?…”

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“…Oder handelt sie wie ein "Automat", der tut, wozu er bestimmt ist? 86 Besonders beim Beginn einer neuen Tätigkeit meine man, so Huber, bei der Ameise das Auftauchen eines Gedanken zu sehen, der sich dann in ihrem Handeln realisiere. 87 Die zu beobachtende Einheit des Ameisenforschers ist gegen Ende des 19.…”

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Ameisen und Aliens. Zur Wissensgeschichte von Soziologie und Entomologie

Werber

2011

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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The frequent use of biological metaphors in descriptions of society is well known and has already been investigated. Even the traces of biological theory in sociology have been explored. In this field of science, studies of social insects play an important role, because ants, bees, and termites have been considered to be genuinely political animals and founders of societies. Like men, social insects exist only in collectives; thus, the entomologist's research directs him from the individual insect, its morphology and taxonomy to the analysis of insect societies. Entomologists like Wheeler or Wilson become sociologists and develop methods to deal with a society whose members are dumb, soulless, without reason, rational choice, or motives. Tools invented to describe the evolution of insect societies have been picked up by sociological founders of systems theory like Parsons or Luhmann, who were busy building a theory of a society, which for heuristic reasons is not composed of men (individuals with souls, motives, consciousness and so on) but rather of communications, media, or codes. My paper treats 1.) the genealogy of this discursive mixture of problems, methods, and focuses on 2.) the rhetorical dimension of this entomological-sociological passage. I will sketch certain 'evident' pictures of society, which function as media of a subliminal crossing of entomological and sociological premises, models, and assumptions. Both can be found in novels like Wilson's Anthill, which this paper analyzes with respect to the concepts of society implied by them, that is, concepts whose blueprints are based on models of an ant society.

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Recherches sur les moeurs des fourmis indigènes

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Six origins of slavery in formicoxenine ants

Six origins of slavery in formicoxenine ants

Brave new worlds: Trophallaxis and the origin of society in the early twentieth century

Ameisen und Aliens. Zur Wissensgeschichte von Soziologie und Entomologie

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