George McGavin and his team conduct a unique experiment to discover the lives of a leaf-cutter ant colony.
George McGavin “Our project will show their world as it’s never been seen before, and reveal what they can teach us about ourselves.”
Glasgow | Planet Ant | George McGavin | Adam Hart
An ant farm in the laboratory gives scientists, George McGavin and Adam Hart, a unique opportunity to observe these fascinating creatures.
Going down the size scale, this small ant is called a media worker. These are the ants that collect and bring leaves back to the nest. Its serrated jaws are just the right shape for cutting into tough plant material.
Ant Colony Waste Dump | Adam Hart | Graveyard | Planet Ant
Adam Hart and George McGavin discover how the queen lays up to 30,00 eggs per day and how the worker ants nurture the development of the different ant castes.
So the workers who feed the larva they are actually controlling the number of soldiers and worker castes produced within the colony.
Ant Colony | Claire Asher | Adam Hart | Planet Ant
The ant colony from Trinidad is placed in the artificial ant nest and the soldier ants are radio-tagged to monitor their movements.
It’s this kind of collective endeavour that has made ants so fascinating to us humans down the ages. During the Industrial Revolution, when factory life was transforming human society, the parallels were striking.
