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.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
4:55
Barn owls turn mice, gophers and voles into balls of fur and bones known as pellets.
4:02
It’s called nectar robbing: Bees get nectar, but don’t pollinate the plants in exchange.
3:49
Giant water bugs pack one of the most painful bites of any insect, but they're great dads.
4:33
The spotted wing drosophila may look like a common fruit fly, but it’s so much worse.
5:13
Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillars of a fuzzy moth.
3:58
Barnacles might look like jagged little rocks, but they have a surprisingly wild sex life.
4:25
What animal sprays acid that reeks of vinegar from its rear end? A vinegaroon, of course.
4:31
The cage fungus looks and smells like decaying meat — on purpose.
5:12
Subterranean termites fly off in swarms, and then drop their wings to start new colonies.
4:59
A twig is actually just one of many disguises for the Australian walking stick insect.
4:46
They might look like harmless grasshoppers, but locusts have an appetite for destruction.
4:58
A kissing bug gorges on your blood, plus it may carry a potentially deadly parasite.