Knowra Army ant Army ant Army ants are highly social ants that form massive, coordinated raids and often move their colonies between temporary bivouacs. Their nomadic lifestyle and collective foraging shape their societies and ecological effects.
Collective foraging : A feeding strategy in which group members coordinate to locate, capture, or harvest food. Army-ant raids turn thousands of individual searches into a moving, efficient predatory front.
Ant : A eusocial insect in the family Formicidae, with elbowed antennae and a narrow waist. Army ants are specialized members of the wider ant lineage.
Tropical forest : A forest ecosystem in tropical regions, usually characterized by warm temperatures and high biological diversity. Many army ants conduct their raids through tropical forests, where their effects are especially visible.
Leafcutter ant : An ant that cuts leaves and uses them to cultivate a fungus as its food source. Leafcutters harvest plant material for gardens, whereas army ants primarily capture prey.
Raid (army ants) : A mass foraging excursion in which an army-ant colony advances across terrain and captures prey. Raids are the signature operation of army-ant colonies.
Eusociality : A social system marked by cooperative brood care, overlapping generations, and reproductive division of labor. Army-ant colonies depend on the extreme cooperation characteristic of eusocial insects.
Predation : An interaction in which one organism captures and consumes another. Army-ant columns capture large numbers of arthropods and other small animals.
Weaver ant : An arboreal ant that binds leaves together with silk produced by its larvae. Weaver ants build persistent nests in trees rather than relying on mobile bivouacs.
Bivouac : A temporary nest formed by living ants that cluster together around the queen and brood. Between raids, many army ants shelter in a living nest that can be dismantled and moved.
Ant colony : A social group of ants organized around reproduction, brood care, and cooperative work. The colony, rather than an individual worker, is the main unit of army-ant life.
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