People may think that how these tiny creatures can be deadly. Even some may refuse to believe such claims. However, as small they are, army ants are capable of putting any of their victims at deadly risk.
In general, most ants we see every day are far from being deadly, but army ants are not your average ants.
Top Ten Facts about Army Ants
1. Army Ants are known as legionary ant or marabunta.
2. Army ants are categorized as “Raids” because they all attack at the same time and eats up everything in that area. Their aggressive characteristic puts them into deadly ants category. Once they catch their prey, there is no escape.
3. Unlike ordinary ants, army ants do not build permanent nests. They constantly move from one location to the other.
4. Most of the time, workers of the army ants are blind or they have very low vision.
5. A colony of Army Ants has only one Queen. A queen of an army ant colony is bigger than regular army ants, and they have enlarged gaster, which is capable of producing up to 3-4 million eggs a month.
6. Male army ants are also larger in size. Mostly, males seek to stay and mate with an existing queen. If worker ants of that colony accept the male, they remove its wings to facilitate him in their nest.
7. When ordinary ants need food, they sent out their scouts to search for food sources. Once the scouts find food, they recruit others from the colony to bring the food to their nest. However, Army ants search for their food as a team. Once they find it, they attack simultaneously.
8. When a colony gets too large in size, army ants split into two different groups. This process happens every 3 years.
9. When a queen dies, a colony also dies. In some cases, after the queen’s death, worker ants join a different colony.
10. A colony of army ants can consume about 500,000 prey animals a day, depending on the size.
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