Anyone who dismisses ants as just another pesky insect is missing some of nature’s most jaw-dropping displays, including acts of disguise, architectural genius and female domination. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to researcher and museum curator Daniel Ksepka, whose new Ants, Tiny Creatures, Big Lives exhibit at the Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum.
The displays detail the biology and work of some of the 12,000 known species of ants, which he speculates could rise to 20,000 as more are discovered.
Kspeka joins host Robin Young to talk about ants, including the spiny queen, who invades colonies of carpenter ants using a smell disguise, mates with the unsuspecting carpenter ants, and eventually converts their colony to hers.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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