Up Next
Back to Show
Deep Look
Honeypot Ants Turn Their Biggest Sisters Into Jugs of Nectar
Season 9
Episode 5
Deep in their underground nests, honeypot ants stuff members of their own colony until they look like golden water balloons. Drop by drop, worker ants deliver nectar and other liquid food into their largest sisters’ mouths. When food is scarce in the desert, the colony will feed from these living storage tanks, known as repletes.
Support Provided By
5:14
Ladybugs may be the cutest insects around, but they don't start off that way.
3:57
Do cockroaches -- daring, disgusting disease vectors -- have anything at all to offer us?
5:42
Covered in a shiny bubble, the alkali fly scuba dives in California's Mono Lake.
4:58
A “bee fly” is a freeloader that takes advantage of a bindweed turret bee’s hard work.
4:05
The scaled wormsnail cements its shell to a rock and snags its meals using mucus!
4:04
Step right up to see tiny springtails spin through the air with the greatest of ease!
3:44
Geckos navigate nearly any surface with an electron dance at the atomic scale.
4:31
The snake's forked tongue helps it smell in stereo.
3:22
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs have no yolks.
3:36
How are frogs so amazing at catching bugs? It’s their supersoft tongue and special spit.
4:00
Mussels create byssal threads to attach themselves to rocks and each other.
4:10
Earthworms cozy up with a mate inside tubes of slime to make cocoons full of baby worms.