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Colonies of army ants are large compared to the colonies of other Formicidae. Colonies can have over 15 million workers and can transport 3000 prey (items) per hour during the raid period. [14] [20] When army ants forage, the trails that are formed can be over 20 m (66 ft) wide and over 100 m (330 ft) long. [20]
The army ants never reside in one location and do not build permanent nests. Therefore, they forage and hunt in different locations and emigrate periodically. [ 7 ] The Queen are wingless and contain expandable abdomens that allow them to produce millions of eggs per month, which allows variation to occur within the species.
Eciton army ants have a bi-phasic lifestyle in which they alternate between a nomadic phase and a statary phase. In the statary phase, which lasts about three weeks, the ants remain in the same location every night. They arrange their own living bodies into a nest, protecting the queen and her eggs in the middle.
Head view of a soldier with characteristically shaped mandibles. Unlike most ant species, Eciton burchellii is polymorphic, meaning that features amongst smaller groups within the colony vary in size: a colony contains workers ranging from 3 mm to 12 mm, with each specific "caste" suited to specialized tasks.
Most species of the genus are specialized predators of other ants, especially of immature stages. [ 5 ] [ 9 ] [ 11 ] Only some Asian species such as Aenictus gracilis , Aenictus laeviceps , Aenictus hodgsoni , and Aenictus paradentatus are known to hunt a variety of invertebrate prey, including ants, using a large number of workers in raids.
Colonies of real army ants have only one queen, so when she dies, the workers may try to join another colony, or the rest of the colony also dies; Carebara colonies can have many (up to 16) queens. Carebara species perform a nuptial flight; real army-ant queens have no wings (queens and workers of the Dorylus species are even blind) and mate on ...
The arrival of big-headed ants ‘spells almost certain doom’, one study found ... How an army of ants saved zebras from hungry lions in Kenya. Louise Boyle. January 26, 2024 at 12:20 PM.
Vestigipoda is a genus of myrmecophilous flies in the family Phoridae which live in the nests of army ants.The genus was discovered in Malaysia in 1994 from a colony of Aenictus gracilis and described in 1996 by dipterologist Ronald Henry Disney. [2]