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I think I'm going to review a small, unimpressive little book, brought out by a publisher, almost unknown, and translated by a fellow landsman from the author, and, yes, introduced by a son of the author and this for the 100-th birthday of the author. If you want to know what the title is, have a look:

Forel, A., 1948, “Die Welt der Ameisen. Ausgewählt und übersetzt von Heinrich Kutter. Mit einem Vorwort von Oscar Forel. 61 Abbildungen.” Zürich, Rotapfel-Verlag, 275 pp.

Now, this is an unimpressive booklet but it remembers August Forel who was born in 1848.

Here a few photographs:

Vorwort des Herausgebers. (p. 7.)

Kutter is a very well known Myrmecologist. So, as an "Herausgeber" he is very well in a position to select and translate chapters of the original publications. And this is a list of them:

Forel, A., 1921, “Le monde social des fourmis comparé à celui de l'homme. Tome 1. Genèse, formes, anatomie, classification. géographie, fossiles.” Genève, Librairie Kundig, xiv + 192 pp.

Forel, A., 1921, “Le monde social des fourmis comparé à celui de l'homme. Tome 2. Sensations, physiologie, fourmis et plantes, hôtes, parasites, nids.” Genève, Librairie Kundig, iii + 184 pp.

Forel, A., 1922, “Le monde social des fourmis comparé à celui de l'homme. Tome 3. Appareils d'observation. Fondation des foumilières. Moeurs à l'intérieur des nids. Bétail, jardins, fourmis parasites. (Avec appendice du Dr. E. Bugnion.).” Genève, Librairie Kundig, vii + 227 pp.

Forel, A., 1923, “Le monde social des fourmis comparé à celui de l'homme. Tome 4. Alliances et guerres, parabiose, lestobiose, esclavagisme.” Genève, Librairie Kundig, vii + 172 pp.

Forel, A., 1923, “Le monde social des fourmis comparé à celui de l'homme. Tome 5. Moeurs specialisées. Epilogue, les fourmis. Les termites et l'homme.” Genève, Librairie Kundig, vi + 174 pp.

What Kutter probably didn't know was that the books were already translated in English:

Forel, A., 1928, “The social world of the ants compared with that of man. Volume 1. [Translated by C. K. Ogden.].” London, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Ltd., xlv + 551 pp.

Forel, A., 1928, “The social world of the ants compared with that of man. Volume 2. [Translated by C. K. Ogden.].” London, G. P. Putman's Sons, Ltd., xx + 444 pp.

Except the 5 French volumes he also used parts of a German translation:

Forel, A., 1910, "Das Sinnesleben der Insekten." München, Ernst Reinhardt, xv + 393 pp.

It also appeared in English:

Forel, A., 1908, "The senses of insects. [Translated by Macleod Yearsley.]." London, Methuen, xiv + 324 pp.

Those were made from a few different French articles published by Forel before 1908.

So, he used the 5 French books and a German translation as the base of his book. He didn't comment it (maybe out of respect for Forel.). All for a good introduction to ants for German readers.

Vorwort von Oscar Forel. (p. 9-12.)

Oscar Forei, the son of, sketches in a few pages the life of his father and what is special about the original book. But almost nothing of his fathers profession...

Der Author an den Leser. (p. 13- 16.)

In these few pages, A. Forel gives a good picture of how he came to study ants, from just observing those animals without knowing about what was really happening till he read Huber, P., 1810, “Recherches sur les mœurs des fourmis indigènes.” Paris, Chez J. J. Paschoud, xvi + 328 pp. and all got sense. All the rest is history.
Then he gives a few words about how many species were known at that moment, the Latin and vernacular names, soldiers, workers, female and male ants and how they develop (egg, larvae, pupae and "grown up" adults.) and the difference between ants (female workers.) and termites (female and male workers.).
A good introduction to the book...

As an intermezzo: In the book was a page, printed on both sides, that was an advertisement of the publisher, Rotapfel-Verlag, for 1948. On it were books and what book appeared as first on the second page?

Yes, "Die Welt der Ameisen.".

A few photographs from the book....
The Forel photo is the only one not numbered.

And more...