Really! The French artist Hubert Duprat gave gold, turquoise, and other precious metals and stones, to caddis larvae to build their “houses. The results are astonishing. The article gets a bit into “artspeak” but it is worth a look.
HT Malinda Chouinard.
It'd be difficult to know who did this first, but a number of artists and jewelry-makers have put caddisfly larvae to work. See, for example, this article in the Charleston (WV) Gazette:
http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/200812270539
Cool stuff, whoever started it.
Beautiful 'work'. It begs the question, "does 'art' imply (or require) intent?"
It reminds me of the story (from Herotodus, possibly?) that the Scythians/Geats/Some Furriners got their impressive supplies of gold from giant ants that tossed aside gold nuggets at the top of their nest as byproducts from their tunneling. The tribesmen would simply collect this gold from the tops of the anthills, and the ants didn't mind, since it was just rocks to them.
It is indeed Herodotus. If memory serves, I think he was referring to a people east of Persia, maybe Transoxiana (I'm away from my library; perhaps Mrs. P could look up the passage if she sees this thread)? I once read a commentary alleging that Herodotus, whose Persian was not always top notch, translated "mountain ant" literally, failing to recognize it as the Persian term for marmot. Mountain dwellers scavanging gold dust from marmot excavations may fall within the realm of the credible.
Peculiar and some others might remember the griffons that guarded the gold– which were probably inspired by the skeletons of Protoceratops still being dug up in that country. I believe there is some material on this in Adrienne Mayor's The First Fossil Hunters