Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives will bring visitors eye to eye with nature’s minuscule and marvelous super-insects. For every person on Earth, there are 2.5 million ants. These tiny dynamos form societies, construct complex homes, stockpile and cultivate food, and go to war with other colonies. Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives zooms in on our ubiquitous insect neighbors, using scaled-up models and macrophotography to provide a close-up view of the miraculous variety of ant body shapes, behaviors and habitats. Visitors will also learn about the many ecosystem services that ants provide, ranging from pollinating crops to aerating and improving soil to serving directly as a food staple in some societies.

Guests begin their journey by walking through a scaled-up ant tunnel. As they emerge, they will be greeted with a five-foot-long model of a giant Amazonian ant. This model will illustrate the fine details of ant anatomy like compound eyes, serrated mandibles, and venomous stingers. Smaller models will showcase the tremendous diversity of ants pointing out features like the scissor-like mandibles of leaf-cutter ants, the pincher-like mandibles of army ant soldiers and the loss of eyes in some subterranean ant species.

Activities abound in Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives. Children will be invited to use a giant slot machine-like spinner to select heads, midsections, and rear sections to create their own ant species, choosing adaptations like leaf-slicing mandibles, protective spines, or venomous stingers to help their ant survive different environments. Chemical communication in ants will be brought to life with a smell-based interactive, highlighting the range of odors ants use to mark trails, raise alarms, and ward off enemies. A towering “Sting Meter” will help guests visualize the pain level of various ant stings, ranging from the mild heat of a fire ant to the debilitating punch of the bullet ant.

An “Ant Architecture” display will showcase the ability of ants to create complex subterranean nests and the ways nests reflect soil type, colony size, and the ecologies of different ant species. The display will feature aluminum nest casts created by Walter Tschinkel, Ph.D., the scientist who invented the poured aluminum technique. In this technique, molten aluminum is poured into nests and fills the individual chambers, quickly cooling so that an exact cast of the entire nest can be excavated. These nest casts are both aesthetically beautiful and fascinating in their ability to let us see details of nest shape that would otherwise be impossible to visualize. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will marvel at large prints of photos illustrating remarkable ant behaviors by world-renowned entomologist Alex Wild, Ph.D., whose photographs have appeared in standalone exhibitions, magazines, books, television programs, and video games.

During the exhibition, the Bruce Museum will offer an array of exciting events including presentations from real entomologists, an insect-themed Museum Movers class, related films, tours and activities for groups of all ages, and an insect-themed Night at the Museum.

Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives is organized by the Bruce Museum and curated by Daniel Ksepka, Curator of Science.

A scouting Rhytidoponera victoriae (left) tangles with a Amblyopone ferruginea worker (right). Photo by Alex Wild.

A slender-legged green tree ant major worker (Oecophylla smaragdina) raises its sting.
Photo: Alex Wild

Deserts
The ability to construct nests helps ants survive in harsh desert ecosystems. Myrmecocystus Navajo honeypot ants stay in their nests during the hottest part of the day and venture forth to forage at night.
Photo: Alex Wild