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Dear Mr North, Dr ..... has passed your enquiry to the Insect Information Service for reply. Firstly I should tell you that the true story about the peppered moths is nothing like the simplified version that you are familiar with (see the book "Of Moths and Men" by Judith Hooper). The colour changes mentioned in the story you wrote were not changes at all; that moth species naturally occurs in pale and dark forms anyway, and the colour form best camouflaged in the local environment survives to breed, while the conspicuous form mostly gets eaten by predators so its reduced breeding success results in fewer pale moths in the population. If the environment changes, the proportions of the colour will alter accordingly. I am not aware of any ant species that is metallic gold in colour; nor have I ever heard of a species of ant having more than one colour form. As such, you have no chance of making a non-gold species develop into a golden form. And persuading ants to live in your model city would only be successful if the environmental conditions in the model were suitable for their survival. You may wish to contact London Zoo Inverterbrate House (020 7722 3333) if you are looking for advice on how to keep an ant colony, and whether one might be able to survive in your model. They might be able to suggest a yellow or orange species that is available in this country, that would be suitable for rearing indoors. You would need to bear in mind that if they escaped and infested your house they could become a serious nuisance and cause a lot of damage. I hope this is helpful. Yours sincerely, Dr...... Insect
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