Colourful Ant Images
By tony leather, 1st May 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsOff Beat
Babu gave the brightly coloured sugar drops to the tiny creatures, watching and snapping in astounded fascination as their transparent stomachs changed colour to match whatever food they were eating at the time
Colourful Ant Images
An Indian scientist decided to test the old adage - what you eat is what you are - by subjecting some ants in his garden to an experiment, with absolutely stunning results. That the saying rings perfectly true for these creatures is breathtakingly obvious, and quite startling. As these insects sip on sugar drops, the pictures show their abdomens changing colour.
Scientist Mohamed Babu, father of three, mixed edible colours red, green, blue and yellow into the sugar drops - then placed them in his garden to attract the insects. He set the whole thing up after wife Shameem had pointed out to him the phenomenon of some ants turning white after drinking milk that had been spilled.
With camera at the ready, Babu gave the brightly coloured sugar drops to the tiny creatures, watching and snapping in astounded fascination as their transparent stomachs changed colour to match whatever food they were eating at the time, noticing that those who sipped from different coloured drops ended up with multi-coloured abdomens
Rainbow Ants 2
The 53-year-old Dr Babu ensured the drops holding together by placing them on a paraffin base, so that when touched by the ants they remained whole. discovering that the insects had a preference for lighter colours like green and yellow. He shot the photos in hisgarden to take advantage of the natural lighting, and it required several retakes to take shots with which he was satisfied.
Mysore South India resident Dr Babu said that he had really toiled to get the right shots, because the ant swarm tended usually to become unmanageable - so whilst he managed my camera with his right hand, his left hand was employed removing excess ants, though as you can plainly see, he succeeded beautifully.
Comments
1st May 2012 (#)
that is really awesome!x
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