What is the name of a community of ants?
Empire of the Ants (novel) other people follow, and disappear. The ant character is a male whose foraging expedition gets destroyed in one strike, by a mysterious force that comes from above. He suspects that a colony of another ant species has attacked them with a secret weapon, and attempts to meet with the queen and to rally other ants to investigate the disaster. However, he attracts the attention of a secret group of ants within the same colony that appear to want to conceal this information. As the plot unfolds, the humans and the ants encounter new mysteries and participate in challenging events, including
Empire of the Ants 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"?" (variants of this phrase are used throughout the story when discussing the ants) and returns downstream for orders. 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". H. G. Wells had befriended Joseph Conrad in 1898 and admired his work.