Diminutive and six-legged social insects, ants are one of the most successful species on Earth... and despite their small size, these creatures exhibit extraordinary social, physical and even architectural adaptations to their habitats. Check out...
1. Mystrium camillae: Snapping Jaws and VampirismWith a jaw speed of over 200 miles per hour, the Dracula ant Mystrium camillae may be the fastest-moving animal on Earth. The ant presses the tips of its mandibles together to "arm" them, much like bending a ruler or snapping fingers. The ant can't grab things like this... but it can hit prey with a single high-speed mandible to stun or kill.
The adult Dracula ant cannot digest solid food, so they maintain a "social stomach"- they feed their grubs, then drink their hemolymph (blood.) This vampiric process doesn't kill the grubs, and in time they will also become fully-fledged Dracula ants.
Despite the lack of wings, some ants are capable of limited gliding. The arboreal ant Cephalotes atratus has been found capable of orientating itself in a vertical wind tunnel, using legs and posture to direct the fall. The experimenters suggest that this allows ants that fall from the forest canopy to influence where they land - and that lethal attacks from predators are much more frequent with a water landing rather than a leaf-litter landing. Sometimes they can even land on the trunk of the tree they fell from, using their strange-shaped heads and bodies as a rudimentary wingsuit!
The colonies of Indian jumping ants are complicated affairs, excavated during the comparatively short lifespan (thought to be around 2-3 years) of a founding queen. They feature layered chambers inside an impermeable earthen shell, with areas into which encroaching water can drain - essential given the flood-prone nature of their habitat.
These structures represent a fair amount of effort that would be wasted on a short-lived queen, so some of the workers produced by the colony retain the ability to breed, without reaching "queen" status. This allows the colony to continue once the founder has died... while still producing new queens to act as trailblazers and establish new nests.
4. Polyrhachis sokolova: The Amazing Aquatic AntOne of the few places you would expect to see an ant is in water, but the Australian intertidal ant Polyrhachis sokolova makes a habit of swimming across the water of its mangrove-swamp home. The insect uses the front two pairs of legs to propel itself across the water, using visual cues to navigate between landmarks and the nest. It's a calculated risk - though this method of propulsion does grant them access to more foraging areas, it does leave them vulnerable to predation from fish as they cross the exposed water surface.
The ants make their nests below the high tide water level, meaning that they spend some of each day submerged. To counter this, the nests contained a large series of galleries and a loose soil entrance that collapses when water reaches it, forming an impromptu stopper - the ants tunnel their way back out when the coast is clear!
- Mystrium camillae: Snapping Jaws and Vampirism
- Cephalotes atratus: Disposable Wings and Biological Wingsuits
- Harpegnathos saltator: Some Queens, No Masters
- Polyrhachis sokolova: The Amazing Aquatic Ant
- Camponotus inflatus: Living Honeypots
- Colobopsis explodens: The Needs of the Many
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| Some ants are stranger than others... (Dibakar Roy) |
1. Mystrium camillae: Snapping Jaws and VampirismWith a jaw speed of over 200 miles per hour, the Dracula ant Mystrium camillae may be the fastest-moving animal on Earth. The ant presses the tips of its mandibles together to "arm" them, much like bending a ruler or snapping fingers. The ant can't grab things like this... but it can hit prey with a single high-speed mandible to stun or kill.
The adult Dracula ant cannot digest solid food, so they maintain a "social stomach"- they feed their grubs, then drink their hemolymph (blood.) This vampiric process doesn't kill the grubs, and in time they will also become fully-fledged Dracula ants.
2. Cephalotes atratus: Disposable Wings and Biological Wingsuits
Though ants are close relatives of the bees, almost all lack the ability to fly. Each year ant colonies produce a number of winged queens and males to find new territory and mate with ants from other colonies. After this brief period of flight and exploration, the queens chew off their own wings and burrow into the ground to establish a nest - and the males simply die. The typical worker and soldier ants produced by each colony lack the capacity for flight.Despite the lack of wings, some ants are capable of limited gliding. The arboreal ant Cephalotes atratus has been found capable of orientating itself in a vertical wind tunnel, using legs and posture to direct the fall. The experimenters suggest that this allows ants that fall from the forest canopy to influence where they land - and that lethal attacks from predators are much more frequent with a water landing rather than a leaf-litter landing. Sometimes they can even land on the trunk of the tree they fell from, using their strange-shaped heads and bodies as a rudimentary wingsuit!
3. Harpegnathos saltator: Some Queens, No Masters
One particularly strange species is the Indian jumping ant Harpegnathos saltator, so called for its ability to leap a few inches. While considered "primitive" in terms of ant evolution, these insects are not dependent on a queen for reproduction, possibly as a result of their frequently flooded home.The colonies of Indian jumping ants are complicated affairs, excavated during the comparatively short lifespan (thought to be around 2-3 years) of a founding queen. They feature layered chambers inside an impermeable earthen shell, with areas into which encroaching water can drain - essential given the flood-prone nature of their habitat.
These structures represent a fair amount of effort that would be wasted on a short-lived queen, so some of the workers produced by the colony retain the ability to breed, without reaching "queen" status. This allows the colony to continue once the founder has died... while still producing new queens to act as trailblazers and establish new nests.
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| Would you expect to see ants swimming amongst the mangroves? (Kristin Hoel) |
4. Polyrhachis sokolova: The Amazing Aquatic AntOne of the few places you would expect to see an ant is in water, but the Australian intertidal ant Polyrhachis sokolova makes a habit of swimming across the water of its mangrove-swamp home. The insect uses the front two pairs of legs to propel itself across the water, using visual cues to navigate between landmarks and the nest. It's a calculated risk - though this method of propulsion does grant them access to more foraging areas, it does leave them vulnerable to predation from fish as they cross the exposed water surface.
The ants make their nests below the high tide water level, meaning that they spend some of each day submerged. To counter this, the nests contained a large series of galleries and a loose soil entrance that collapses when water reaches it, forming an impromptu stopper - the ants tunnel their way back out when the coast is clear!
5. Camponotus inflatus: Living Honeypots
It's not just bees that make honey. Camponotus inflatus, the honeypot ant of Australia, knows the same trick - but stores the sweet fluid in a very strange way. Workers harvest the nectar of the mulga tree Acacia aneura and feed it to other "modified" workers with massively swollen abdomens - they can produce so much honey that their abdomen becomes see-through, like an orange marble. These overstuffed workers act as living larders for times of hardship, able to regurgitate nectar if the hunting has been poor.These ants are actually edible to humans and have been gathered by the aborigines of Australia for thousands of years. Funnily enough, similar species of ant can be found in the desert regions of Mexico and the USA!
The Brazilian ant Forelius pusillus practices a form of sacrificial defense even when no immediate danger is present. Each night, between one and eight workers will seal the nest from the outside. This doesn't seem to be an accident either - the behavior of the ants remaining outside changes to include a great deal of "kicking" fine sand and dust over the entrance once the seal is in place. The sacrificial ants then wander off, seemingly dying of their own accord by the next morning.
6. Colobopsis explodens: The Needs of the Many
For most ants, the survival of the colony takes precedence over their own lives - after all, most ants are sterile, and their genetics will pass on only through the larvae of the queen. Colobopsis explodens is a tiny little ant from Borneo that takes this to the extreme. If a potential predator gets close and ignores a warning display, one or more of these "helpless" ants will rush them and latch on to them with a bite. They then rupture, coating the predator in an explosion of sticky yellow toxic sludge that smells oddly like curry.The Brazilian ant Forelius pusillus practices a form of sacrificial defense even when no immediate danger is present. Each night, between one and eight workers will seal the nest from the outside. This doesn't seem to be an accident either - the behavior of the ants remaining outside changes to include a great deal of "kicking" fine sand and dust over the entrance once the seal is in place. The sacrificial ants then wander off, seemingly dying of their own accord by the next morning.
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