Les Fourmis (English: The Ants) is a 1991 science fiction novel by French writer Bernard Werber.

The human character receives a house and a provocative message as inheritance from his recently deceased uncle.

He begins to investigate his uncle's life and mysterious activities, and decides to descend into the cellar of the house but does not return.

The descriptions of ant morphology, behavior, and social organization as well as their interactions with other species are detailed and scientifically based, although Werber significantly exaggerates the reasoning and communication capabilities of the ants, and the work is usually labeled as science fiction,[4] though some consider it more akin to speculative fiction.

[5][6] Katharine Mills, reviewing the book for SF Site, wrote: "The book is seeded with excerpts from Uncle Edmond's Encyclopedia, describing the ants' culture from a human perspective, a device which, combined with the intimate glimpses of their daily lives, illustrates the superficiality of human scientific observation."