value and behavior

Think of Edward O. Wilson, one of the most important biological theorists since Darwin.

Author of some two dozen books, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, expert on social insects, discoverer of new species, passionate advocate of bio­diversity, he is best known for his groundbreaking work on the evolution of social behavior.

Describing ‘the decency of ants’, no writer could do this better.

When the nest must be defended, its eldest residents — with the least long-term utility remaining to them — become the most suicidally aggressive: Where humans send their young men to war, ants send their old ladies.