In the NY Times Science section yesterday, Bert Holldobler was asked about his life studying ant societies.  The writer, Claudia Dreifus quoted him as saying "The insect societies we study have evolutionary success because they are organized into a division of labor system".  This is the meat of the wisdom of Dr.Holldobler. He admits there is slavery as the result of war between ant societies; sometimes the societies are closely related, yet the labor of the defeated does not go to waste.

His studies with those of a close friend, Edward O. Wilson, have shown him that in the most successful ant societies, the alpha individual becomes Queen and is the sole reproduction individual responsible for producing workers who maintain the system.  Thus, there are only two (or three if counting the short lived males) classes: The Queen and her servants and the rest of the population of workers.

Suggested conclusions about such a system rule out all the intermediary steps in creating a society based on majority rule with its elections and division of decisions between three offices of the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary.  All the ants do is produce new workers who supply food and protection to the entire ant society they serve.  Things like workmen's comp, vacations and retirement funds are unnecessary.  The two scientists implied, but did not say directly, that health and welfare systems did not occur to the ants.  They lived, worked and died.

There is something to be said about ants.  Most of it is about a huge population that is so small that we are unaware of its existence until they take up residence in OUR homes.  We may step on theirs and destroy whole populations but they seem to work independently in our scheme of life providing us with aeration of the soil and warring with other insects which we consider more harmful than ants.

The main dispute between the two species is when their activities intersect.  The point was made by the author that ants bite humans when humans sit on them as they work, eat and live.  The suggestion is that we could learn a lot from this society whose activities imitate (or it may be the reverse) ours.

I like the remark made by Holldobler that "We should value the work of a craftsman carpenter at the same level as we value the work of an academic person.  Each part done in humans with expertise and done well has the same value. I'm not saying that everyone should be paid the same." Ant societies are labor intensive.

There is something to be said about the ants.  They work without pay.