The interactive exhibit “The Legacy of a Lifetime of Collecting: The Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer Story,” was inspired by a fascinating collection of army ants and their hundreds of closely associated organisms, or “guests.” The specimens collected over the course of 50 years of fieldwork in South and Central America by the late Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer. Filmed entirely on location at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica Rettenmeyers produced a two part documentary series on this ecologically significant keystone species called Associates of Eciton burchellii and Astonishing Army Ants. Both documentaries harbor so much natural history that there’s almost no break during the narration. Rettenmeyers’ army ant collection is one of the largest contributions to understanding tropical natural history.
The Many Guests of The Army Ant from AntU.
The exhibit provides a great opportunity to educate the general public for how a state-of-the-art natural history collections facility works. Visitors can follow steps scientists and curators take from field to the collections. In this case, from collecting army ants in the jungles until cataloging and preserving specimens in the Biodiversity Research Collection facility is reflected through touch-interactive screens. Visitors can observe army ant columns raid in the jungle foraging for prey, notate field card observations, examine slides in the collection with a digital microscope, study specimens in Cornell drawers, and explore the life-work of Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer through an interactive timeline.
The exhibit is a result of close collaboration among the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and the University of Connecticut’s Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Digital Media & Design. The collaborative spirit of the three institutions across UConn campus, lead to “AntU”. The exhibit is expected to travel to other institutions. Therefore you may explore the complex biological system of army ants and their guests yourself at a natural history near you!
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