If Darwin had a microscope, a Southern drawl, and a thing for ants, he’d be E.O. Wilson.
Harrison Ford narrates this one—and Wilson names a new ant after him.
Trailer for “Lord of the Ants”
Watch “Lord of the Ants”
You can watch NOVA’s “Lord of the Ants” by clicking the video embed above.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 93/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: N/A
Director’s Note: “Lord of the Ants” was directed by David Dugan. Dugan directed three of the highest-rated science docs on IMDb: “Inside Nature’s Giants” (8.8 IMDB rating), which dissects the world’s largest animals to understand their biology; “Alex: A Life Fast Forward” (also rated 8.8), a moving portrait of a terminally ill teen; and “Your Inner Fish” (8.7), which traces human anatomy back to ancient fish fossils.
The doc is narrated by Harrison Ford.
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- E.O. Wilson collected 5,000 ants by hand—and drew every one of them himself.
- He and a colleague fumigated an entire island in the Florida Keys to simulate a mini-apocalypse. Just to see what came back.
- He discovered ants communicate with invisible chemical trails—and proved it by dragging ant venom across paper with tweezers.
- Protesters once dumped ice water on him mid-lecture for saying genes might influence human behavior.
My Review of “Lord of the Ants”
Release Date: May 20, 2008 (Season 35, Episode 10 of NOVA)
The Setup
E.O. Wilson grew up half-blind, half-deaf, and totally obsessed with nature. A fish spine accident made him blind in one eye. Bad hearing meant he couldn’t study birds—so he turned to bugs.
He went on to name 344 new ant species, author 400+ papers, win two Pulitzers, and spark global controversy by arguing that human behavior might have genetic roots.
Not bad for a guy who started with a magnifying glass in Alabama.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Stuart Altman and Wilson teamed up to compare social systems between ants and primates. Together, they asked: Could there be a universal biology of societies?
- Wilson used dead ants and oleic acid to show how colonies decide what’s “dead.” He even faked a death using acid on live ants.
- As a teen, he was the first person to document red fire ants in Alabama. The state paid him to write the report.
- He coined the term “biophilia”—our innate urge to connect with other life forms—and used Central Park to prove it in a 24-hour “bio-blitz.”
- He challenged James Watson (of DNA fame) at Harvard and helped rebuild organism-level biology when it was getting eclipsed by molecular research.
- His sociobiology claims sparked backlash from fellow Harvard faculty. Some accused him of promoting genetic determinism. One group dumped ice water on his head.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- He named a new species of ant after Harrison Ford (his friend and the film’s narrator) — it’s called Pheidole harrisonfordi (a species of ant in the Myrmicinae subfamily. They live mostly in Belize, Colombia, southern Mexico, Panama, Guatemala and Santa Bárbara, Honduras.
- To collect bugs in mangrove islands, he waded through shark-infested waters and kept an oar on hand to whack lemon sharks away.
- Wilson’s dream project—the Encyclopedia of Life—aims to catalog every species on Earth. He called it a “macroscope” to complement microscopes.
- On Monkey Island in Puerto Rico, Wilson and Altman studied grooming behavior in macaques and compared it to caste behavior in ants.
Wrap Up
“Lord of the Ants” is a love letter to life on the smallest scale—with one of the most unlikely, brilliant, and badass scientists as our guide.
If you like your nature docs with brains, guts, and a bit of fire-ant venom, this one’s for you.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc