Photographer @ingoarndtphotography spent two years photographing wood ants for his most recent Nat Geo story.

Ingo says, “Not far from my home I found a forest with around 150 wood ant nests in a very small area. I went there almost every day to photograph the wood ants. Wood ants are protected in Germany, so I had to ask for a photo permit. It took some time to get used to when I had to lie down on the ground to get a good perspective to photograph.

Hundreds of wood ants bit me and sprayed me with formic acid … I had invaded their territory, and they just wanted to defend their nest. For pictures of the brood care inside the nest, I took photos at the University of Konstanz [Germany]. With the help of Professor Christoph Kleineidam, I was able to photograph behavior under controlled conditions that I could not observe outdoors. Photographing such small animals is very difficult. I took 37,000 pictures, of which only 300 ended up in my photo archive.”

In these images:
1. Wood ants spray formic acid produced by a venom gland at the end of their abdomen to ward off a perceived threat.
2. Wood ant nests consist of two parts, one above ground and one below. Mounds from the species Formica polyctena are the largest aboveground ant nests in the world. Nests can reach seven feet tall and 31 feet wide and support from 30,000 to 16 million ants.
3. New adults emerge from cocoons relocated to a nest’s warmest layer just under the nest surface.
4. Wood ants have compound eyes made up of hundreds of segments. Their vision is the first step in recognizing an object, followed by chemical and tercile sensors in their antennae.
5. Wood ant larvae spin their own cocoons, and female workers care for them as they mature into pupae. Ingo backlit this cocoon to illuminate the pupa inside.

Reference : Natgeo