Natural World: Empire of the Desert Ants
BBC2, Wednesday 10 August 8:00pm - 9:00pm
2/6 One of those natural history films that leaves you disturbed, creeped out and amazed. Don't be put off, mind: it is an astounding feat of photography, delivering an ant's-eye view of the Arizona desert over the eight-year life of a honey ant colony. Scene after scene delivers macabre wonders, like the way some worker ants (called "repletes") feed so much that their abdomens become vastly swollen, filled with concentrated honeydew, whereupon the repletes are fixed to the roof of the nest and become living larders for the rest of the colony. It's a nightmare, alien world, but beautiful in its way.
Radio Times reviewer - David Butcher
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