Who wrote a science-fiction short story entitled "The Maw"? It appeared in an Analogue-type mag circa 1980.

Question

This story was a conceptual gem. Late seventies to early eighties. You know concept stories -- years later they're still grabbing you, but you've forgotten the author. The story was about some ants from another planet (there is space-travel now) who can be bought and had as pets. You put them in your living room in a giant ant-farm terrarium and the ants, who are large, begin making glubular bricks and building an enormous statue of you, very life-like, which they commence to bow down to and bring ceremonial gifts to every day.
The protagonist mistreats his ants, and slowly, over time, his statue gets less and less flattering, and finally turns ugly or something.

Answer 1

I believe this was from "Sandkings", a collection of science fiction short stories by George R.R. Martin. Here's a link to the book's Wikipedia page for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandkings

Good luck and happy reading! :-)