Nature Features

They're one of the smallest farmers in the world to grow their own food but despite their size can carry the equivalent of a bus in their teeth.  They out number humans by over 10,000 to 1 and are workaholics, working 24 hour shifts every day of the year….

Hauling a large chunk of orange pith

And from 9am to dusk, you can snoop on thousands of them at Studley Grange Butterfly World just outside Swindon.

It was in June last year that the small colony of Leaf Cutter Ants moved in to Butterfly World.  Now, well and truly settled in, the colony is flourishing and consuming the equivalent of an adult cow each day.

Ants can carry the equivalent of a bus

Colony on Exhibition

Peering into the Leaf Cutter Ants tank, for the first time, the first thing you'll notice is what appears to be a long single-file stream of green leaves wiggle-waggling their way across the branch that separates the nest from the food supply.

It's only on closer inspection that you realise that these comparatively large chunks of leaf are being carried by a mass of tiny ants like an army of miniature piano movers.

This is no mean feat when you realise that it's the equivalent, for us, of running a 4-minute mile for 30 miles with a zebra strapped to our backs.

A trail of ants all carrying orange pith

And if that wasn't stressful enough… any worker ant returning again and again to the nest empty handed, or at least empty mouthed, will be automatically attacked and killed by the larger soldier ants guarding the nest door.

A leaf cutter ant colony, it seems, doesn't suffer shirkers.

Fungus Farmers

But it's not the harvested leaves that the ants feed on.  Instead the leaf cuttings are hauled back to the nest and used to cultivate a fungus garden growing a nutritious fungus that the ants can eat.

The 'fungus garden' inside the colony

All of which makes the Leaf Cutter Ant one of the few, very few, creatures in the animal kingdom that not only grows its own food but can tightrope walk as well.

The Leaf Cutter Ant Colony, as well as a host of beautiful butterflies, insects and reptiles from around the World, can be seen at Studley Grange Butterfly World every day of the year except Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  Open from 10am to 6pm in the summer and from 9am to dusk in the winter.  Admission for adults is £4.25, children £3.25 and under 3s are free.

For more information call 01793 852 400.