They're a formidable duo: Bert Hölldobbler and E. O. Wilson are the only professional scientists to have won a Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction, for The Ants (1990).
Meant as a reference work, The Ants astonishes the reader with its sweep of the anatomy, physiology, social organisation, ecology, and natural history of these highly social insects.
It's clear the authors are fascinated by the critters, and it's easy to see why – though social insects only comprise two per cent of insect species, they make up more than 60 per cent of the group's biomass. And in tropical rainforests, ants collectively weigh more than all mammals and land vertebrates combined!
In this, another intriguing book, the pair argue the case for a higher evolutionary unit, 'the superorganism' – groups of individuals so complex that they are analogous to a single organism.
Just as one organism can arise from the combined operation of tiny, short-lived cells, so too does a superorganism arise from the operation of tiny, short-lived minds. Superorganisms often have a colony with a reproductive group (similar to gonads in an individual) and a worker group (similar to muscle and tissues), as well as communication and grooming caste (similar to a circulatory system). The ultimate superorganisms are driver ants and leafcutter ants; bees and even the naked mole rat may qualify.
This is, the authors say, one of the more controversial ideas in modern biology, and likely to annoy the selfish gene fans. Evolutionary pressure acts on the individual, while some believe it is the whole genome of an organism that is selected. Hölldobbler and Wilson argue that with ant colonies and other social insects, it is the breeding entity of the colony that is selected, and not its individual members.
One can almost imagine Richard Dawkins' eyes glowering in riposte, and only hope he is not too busy battling all of the world's religions simultaneously, to let this tome go past unanswered. In evolutionary biology circles, the superorganism issue has neither been properly resolved, nor will it go away.
The book is a pleasure to read, and is clearly written with passion – though at times the detail can be a little heavy going, and the glossary is on the sparse side. It's not as in-depth as The Ants, but probably even more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
