大象传媒

A leafcutter ant colony from Trinidad has been rescued and re-housed in a giant man-made nest in the UK, allowing an in-depth study into their normally hidden world. It鈥檚 the first time a man-made colony has been built on this scale and Professor Adam Hart gives four primary school scientists a tour.

The young scientists are not able to see the queen as she is hidden deep within the nest. But, in the lab, Adam is able to show them a similar queen from another leafcutter colony. They learn that the queen is much larger than all the other ants, with the smaller ants that surround her tending to her every need.

The life cycle of ants is described; the queen lays the eggs which hatch into larvae and then change to become the ants in the colony. When the eggs are laid they are all the same, but what and how much they are fed results in different kinds of ants, such as soldier ants and minima. The ant colony is very clever; if it comes under attack it produces more soldier ants, and if they need more leaves they will grow more ants to become foragers.