A pioneering work on the social insects, with considerable detail including formation and maintenance of nests, relation of ants to plants and animals, behavior, recognition of friends, power of communications, senses, intelligence, etc, with most of the work related to ants.
Lubbock's pioneering and widely read studies of insect behavior were important to the development of comparative psychology. An imaginative and ingenious experimenter, Lubbock introduced specificity into the study of insect behavior by marking individuals with paint for identification, a practice that later became common. He also used obstacles and mazes to test the intelligence of ants, thus anticipating animal psychologists like Kohler.
About the Author
Sir John Lubbock was born in 1834 and was a banker, Member of Parliament, author and scientist. He was president of no less than 25 learned societies and an equal number of commercial organizations. In recognition he received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin, St Andrews and Wurzburg. Sir John Lubbock was raised to the peerage in 1900, becoming the first Lord Avebury.
Charles Darwin, a near neighbor, influenced the young John Lubbock and persuaded his father to give his son a microscope. It was through his contact with Charles Darwin that he acquired his love and respect of nature and science.
He also enjoyed writing and was considered a first class author. He had published some 27 books mainly relating to the natural sciences; many translated into the world`s major languages. One of the major commentators of the time said that one of the greatest services which John Lubbock rendered by his publications was to make plain to the layman the aims and conclusions of specialists.
His life was also involved in banking, geology, archaeology, anthropology and botany. Sir John Lubbock, later the first Lord Avebury, was a man of vision, humanity and in search of knowledge and sharing knowledge. He lived life to the full.
