eugène n. marais, the white ant, nowadays known as termite, 1937 published posthumously.

Eugène Marais was a South African poet, a story-teller, a journalist, a lawyer, a psychologist, a natural scientist, a drug-addict, and a great genius -- an abused and forgotten genius, and the world is the worse off for that. (Keith Addison)

one of those stories: the plagiarist gets all

Like many geniuses, Marais' life ended in tragedy. A spiralling drug addiction and depression was worsened when in 1927, a Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) published The Life of the White Ant[1927] which was largely plagiarised from Marais' articles. In 1936, Marais committed suicide. (David Gordon)

btw, some fungus growing african termites have invented air conditioning, says eric bonabeau.