The story was written in 1938, but it could be describing the online army of retail investors in Reddit. The message board has 330 million followers and some of them have driven a squeeze in shorted stocks. One of them, GameStock was driven up 20 times at its peak.
The story Leiningen Versus the Ants is about a Brazilian plantation that was attacked by an army of ants. Mr Leiningen, the plantation owner, was determined to stave off the intruders.
He burnt the moat around the plantation with petrol but the ants stormed past it. The plantation was finally destroyed after he exhausted his petrol. Leiningen was also gravely injured by the ants, who entered his body through his nose.

