"The Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

about the an explorer who is dispatched to South America to investigate reports of intelligent ants destroying a colony. A 1977 film, '' Empire of the Ants'', was loosely based on Wells' story.

Plot summary

"The Empire of the Ants" features a Brazilian captain, Gerilleau, who is ordered to take his gunboat, the ''Benjamin Constant'', to assist the inhabitants of the town of Badama, in the "Upper Amazon", "against a plague of

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s". Accompanying him is a

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

engineer named Holroyd, from whose point of view the story is (for the most part) told. They find a species of large black ant that has evolved advanced intelligence and has used it to make tools and organize aggression. Before arriving in Badama, Captain Gerilleau encounters a ''cuberta'' which has been taken over by the ants, which have killed and mutilated two sailors. After Capt. Gerilleau sends his second in command, Lieutenant da Cunha, aboard the vessel, the ants attack him and he dies painfully, apparently poisoned. The next day, after burning the ''cuberta'', the ''Benjamin Constant'' arrives off Badama. The town is deserted and all its inhabitants dead or dispersed. Fearing the ants and their poison, Capt. Gerilleau contents himself with firing "de big gun" at the town twice, with minimal effect. He then demands "what else was there to ''do''?" (a phrase that is echoed when discussing the ants) and returns downstream for orders.H.G. Wells, "The Empire of the Ants", in ''The Short Stories of H.G. Wells'' (London: Ernest Benn, 1927), p. 106. A final section reports that Holroyd has returned to England to warn the authorities about the ants "before it is too late". "The Empire of the Ants" was first published in 1905 in ''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

''.

References

External links

*
"EMPIRE OF THE ANTS: H.G. Wells and Tropical Entomology"
Sleigh, C. ''Science as Culture'', Volume 10, Number 1, 1 March 2001, pp. 33–71 {{H. G. Wells 1905 short stories Fictional ants Short stories adapted into films Short stories by H. G. Wells Works originally published in The Strand Magazine