Bulldog ants and water walkers

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 17

Bulldog ants and water walkers

Two 8.8. C. wildlife programmes will be screened in the “Our World” slot on Two at 7.30 tonight. In “Encounter Underground” the producers go to Australia to show the remarkable Bulldog ant. The name of this insect accurately reflects its reputation for dogged determination, shared by the dog of the same name, but there the similarity ends. The Bulldog ant is about the size of half a matchstick. It manages to thrive all over Australia, living in tropical rain forests, arid deserts and even above the snow line. It has become an obsession with a dedicated scientist, Bob Taylor, who is a world authority on ant behaviour. “Encounter Underground” explores his obsession and, through him, reveals such marvels as egg-laying in the subterranean colony just inches below the ground. Taylor says: “... they are elegant and graceful creatures put together like Dinky Toys yet behaving in a most elaborate and exquisite way.” The wonders of nature are seen in action — such as the ingenuity with which these tiny creatures care for their charges and eke out their complicated life in the Australian underworld. The programme reconstructs the important day Bob Taylor rediscovered another species of ant long believed extinct. It also gets closer than ever before to the queen of the Bulldog ant colony. The queen generates the offspring that will develop from larvae and are fed and tended in underground nurseries before finally emerging from the cocoon as fully formed young ants. Most creatures can walk on water only when it is frozen, but a few have mastered the act. For them, this fragile interface is their home. “The Water Walker,” the second part of the programme, explores the world of insects living on the surface of ponds and streams, a world in which the laws of physics take on new dimensions, where water bends and surface tension become a fearful force. The specialist photography of London Scientific Films reveals a startlingly unfamiliar view of the water surface and its inhabitants — the pondskaters, swamp spiders, whirligigs and water boatmen — answering many questions about these weird and wonderful creatures.