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What is Army Ants?
Deep deep in the forest
floors of central and South America, try to seek them, it's impossible.
As dangerous as an elephant but as tiny as a grain of sand…Army Ants…
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These incredibly dangerous insects can grow
from 8mm to 12mm of length! Most of them are light brown but some can
be reddish. They are very fast and intelligent. These insects are the
most dangerous species of ants in the world. They can devour, dissolve,
and eat a cow in a matter of hours. Scientists say that they can use their
two front antennas to use the sense of smell but some people say that
that isn't true.
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Army Ants don’t
have an exact predator because most people and animals step on them so
they consider any moving thing a predator for them. Any animal or living
thing can be eaten and dissolved by army ants, and that’s why they
have such a good diet.
Army Ants love to
feed on wasps, some insects and other animals that might have died but
most delicious the Leaf Cutter Ants. Again Army Ants can eat any animal.
They use their two front teeth and claws to bit and throw a type of venom
that works as an acid to dissolve any type of skin. That is one way they
have learned to survive.
Army Ants have also
learned to survive in a huge team of ants called colonies. This way the
ants have more chances of getting food or fight another animal easily.
In only one colony of ants there can be from 5000 to 18,500 ants!
Army Ants have also
learned to live on trees and underground to have less risk of being stepped
and that’s why there are so many of them.
Army Ants are truly
not endangered. Maybe million of them are eaten of stepped every day but
trillions of them are born each day too! People don’t really want
to get into their territories, squash their nests or step on them but
if they do chances are that it will end your life.
Army Ants Specific
Army Ants, closely related to the driver ants,
eat arthropods which makes it easy to consume that many animals in one
day.
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A colony of Army Ants!
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Army ant colonies are like most other colonies;
they have one wingless queen, millions of blind female workers, and millions
of male soldiers. The species of Army Ants, and more particularly the soldiers,
is known as Eciton burchelli . The soldiers are about one to two inches
long including their two mighty mandibles. |
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The soldiers' main jobs are to protect the queen, gather or kill food,
and to attack enemy colonies. All of the soldiers are male and are born
with their two giant front mandibles. The mandibles are used for killing,
carrying large objects, and digging. The mandibles are so huge that the
soldiers have to depend on the workers to feed them.
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Army or soldier ant
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A single queen can lay from 100,000 to 300,000 eggs
in one lay! Ants don’t really have a mating pattern but the queen spends
most of her time mating and laying eggs. Their survival rate can be from
3 to 13 months. Army Ants are really one of the most interesting creatures
in the world! |
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The females (shown below) in the colony are like
most other females in other colonies because their jobs are to tend the
eggs and queen ant. All females are blind, so they have to move around
by chemical trails. The females' other jobs are to feed the queen and
soldiers as stated earlier. The females are scientifically known as Eciton
hamatum.
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Female army ants
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The queen ant is the thing that holds the colony
together. The queen is pretty much the brain of the colony and controls
the other ants. She is the biggest of the ants.
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It is considered that Army Ants are some of the
most efficient animals, or insects, in the tropics. To back this theory,
a most obvious explain would be how they consume their prey. Army Ants
form a giant group made up of millions of soldier ants. They then storm
the tropics, killing and devouring anything in their path. If they come
to a large animal, like an entangled cow, the soldiers will gradually
start to cover it and when it is totally covered, they will cut the animal
into small pieces without touching the internal organs so it gets eaten
alive. After the animal has been cut up into tiny pieces, the worker ants
follow a chemical trail to the food and carry it back to the nest. Then
all the ants go back to the nest and rest while consuming their great
feast. Those animals that could stand a chance against the ants are few,
but one of those animals is us, humans. If you ever visit the tropics,
watch out or you'll be carried off as their food!
In conclusion we realize hoe powerful and inteligent
are these creatures are also realize that you don’t want to mess
with them!!!
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