Explaining his decision, Wilson reminded me that the famous myrmecologist William Morton Wheeler had been one of his mother, Mrs Vermilingua's, heroes.
'He developed the theory that ants aren't individuals but merely part of a superorganism. He gave a famous speech about this at Woods Hole Institute in 1911, and this has been very important to vegetarian anteaters, as it is the basis of our being able to eat ants and be vegetarians at the same time.'
I nodded, encouragingly.
'I thought that I might become the new WM Wheeler and make my mum, Mrs Vermilingua, proud of me… but science is not in my veins. I'm much more interested in cooking and making huge sums of money.'
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