After months of ant-icipation, Butterfly World in St Albans has welcomed a new leaf cutter ant colony.
Following the tragic demise of the UK’s biggest leaf cutter ant colony earlier in the year, Butterfly World unveiled a new colony of leaf cutter ants straight from the rainforests of Trinidad, in time for the summer holidays.
Visitors will be able to watch these infamous creatures set about building a new home for their queen.
In a freak accident last December, ants from the previous colony chewed through an electrical cable to their display tank. The electric shock waves passed through the labyrinth-like chambers of the colony and killed the queen, which led to the death of over a million ants in the following months.
In order to find a new colony, Butterfly World commissioned expert Andrew Stephenson from Zoologica Exhibito to search the rainforests of Trinidad for a new queen.
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