Crematogaster Striatula: uses nerve gas on termites
Crematogaster Striatula is an African species of acrobat ant. Acrobat ants are so named because they dance around their enemies in battle (using their stings like paintbrushes to cover them with venom). They hunt and fight termites all the time. When they find a termite, they’ll raise their abdomen (gaster) in the air and point it at their prey. They slowly move toward their victims. After a few minutes, the termites roll over and die.
This is because the ants use their version of nerve gas. They release their venom into the air as an aerosol spray. This kills the termites.
Colobopsis schmitzi, the Diving ant
The Diving ant, Colobopsis schmitzi, is quite a swimmer. They don't just swim—lots of other ants can do that (one even lives underwater)—they swim in the digestive fluid of pitcher plants. These brave bugs nest in the tendrils of the plants, diving into the pitcher to scavenge food.
Pillage ants hold the secret of invisibility
These ants, known as Pillage ants (Temnothorax pilagens), are barely 2.5 mm long. They are slavemaking ants, which means they capture the larvae (babies) of other ants, take them home, and raise them as slaves.
Most slavemakers attack with vast forces. Not the Pillage ant. T. pilagens sends in a scout to find the targets, then attacks with a party of not more than four. The ants sneak into a nest of several hundred enemies (built inside a single acorn) and steal the larvae. But why aren't they stopped? The enemy nest only has a single entrance, only a milimeter across. There are guards.
Because the ants are invisible. They possess some sort of chemical camouflage that hides them from the guards. T. pilagens can go in and out with inpunity.
Sometimes the host ants discover them and a battle happens. In that rare case, the pillagers fight back, sometimes killing every ant in the nest. They have never been observed to take casualties in these fights. The attackers use their stingers to kill, targeting it precisely at the tiny spot where the slave ant’s neck is soft-skinned. The sting immediatally causes paralysis and soon death.
Cardiocondyla obscurior: ant Mafia
The males in Cardiocondyla obscurior nests are divided into two categories: winged and unwinged. The dominant wingless one kills all other males born. Winged ones can disguise their scent to smell like females, but wingless ones can't. They're almost always found and killed. But if one survives two days, his exoskeleton hardens and he can put up a fight.
A fight between an older male and a two-day-old consists of a lot of biting, like other ant fights. But they also try to rub a chemical from their anus onto each other. If that chemical gets on them, all the workers in the nest will attack and brutally murder that ant. 14% of the time the younger male wins, 36% the older one wins, and 50% of the time they both die, ripped apart by the mob.
Solenopsis Fugax: eats babies and uses tear gas
Lots of ants steal from other species of ant. Most steal food, others take slaves. S. Fugax takes the larvae of other ants like slavemakers, but they don't raise them—they eat them. They also farm aphids, which is cool. So basically farmers who eat babies on the side.
Unlike Pillage ants, which use invisibility to scent, these guys dig tunnels into the host nest. They then spray a pheromone around. The ants of the host nest avoid that area for up to an hour, so the thieves can steal the larvae. The pheromone is basically tear gas for ants.
Crazy ants
Crazy ants are an invasive species that is currently displacing the also invasive fire ant. They are known as crazy ants because of the way they walk, like they're crazy or drunk.
When crazy and fire ants battle it out, the fire ants use their deadly stingers to sting the crazy ants. Once a crazy ant takes what should be a fatal dose of fire ant venom, the ant quickly retreats from the battle to apply its own acidic venom onto its body. For reasons researchers still don't quite understand, the crazy ant venom neutralizes the effect of the fire ant's toxic sting. And then they run back into the fight. This tactic is effective enough that crazy ants just steamroll most fire ants they come across. They win 93% of the time with equal numbers.
Death trap ants set death traps for prey
Allomerus decemarticulatus is an ant from South America. It constructs a trap on the stem of a plant, basically by making a raised hollow platform on one section of the stem, which looks like a part of the plant, as if it grew in width slightly. The platform is reinforced with a fungus probably grown by the ants. The ants make small holes in this platform which are slightly wider than themselves. The individual workers will hide in these holes underneath the surface, hidden. They will position their heads outwards from the plant with mandibles open, waiting for prey to walk over them. When it does, they each grab a leg. Then they kill and dismember it. Sometimes they will send couriers to summon more ants to the kill. Ocasionally another bug decides to steal the food. That often doesn't go well.
I could go on, but I won't. There are ants that are untouchable, ants that change color based on their food, ants that stave enemy queens to death. Wait, I did go on. But not much. Anyway...
Ants are awesome.
Comments