Isopoda 
Photo stories Weird Nature Ants war
Photo stories Weird Nature Ants war
| Ants war |
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By Francesco Tomasinelli Updated 18/04/2008 Ants are the most important insects in tropical rainforest. Deep into the Peruvian Amazon, in the biodiversity hot-spot of Madre de Dios area, two species dominate rainforest floor: the immense army ants colony of Eciton burchelliand the big and dangerous bullet ants Paraponera clavata. Two fascinating social insects and two very different lifestyles. Army ants rely on huge number and aggressive cooperation. But given the size of their colonies, with tens of thousand of individuals, they must migrate in order to find food. They have no fixed nest and build a new bivouac, a huge aggregation of ants, each day during their nomadic phase. Eciton burchelli are in fact swarm raiders, foraging in a dense fan shaped swarms that can span ten meters across the forest floor and can be very intimidating. They seize everything, from other ants to beetles, scorpions and even small vertebrates not fast enough to move away. Army ants have a painful stings and their warriors show huge jaws that can even pierce the human skin. When the queen is laying eggs, once each two weeks, the colony stops in the same position for days. But will be ready to move again almost immediately, to collect more food for newly hatched larvae. Bullet ants, Paraponera clavata, are exactly the opposite. Their colonies are far smaller, usually not much that one hundred individuals, and usually built at the base of a tree in permanent position. They have a unique working caste, the 2,5 cm long worker, armed with a deadly sting. They are said to be among the most poisonous insect in the world but luckily they are far less aggressive than army ants. The sting on human being is said to be extremely painful. Hence their American common name: “bullet ants”, big and deadly like rifle projectiles. These ants hunt alone on rainforest floor and trees and, given their weapons, can easily subdue most preys. But when a big insect is found close to the nest they can call reinforcements, like any other ant. The two species do not seek open conflict at any cost but almost always meet each other. Deadly battles are the obvious consequence: bullet ants have strength and size, army ants aggressiveness and number. So the results of these skirmishes are often unpredictable and the fight keeps on. Ants do not know peace and diplomacy. As Edward O. Wilson, the most famous myrmecologist in the world said “If ants were given nuclear weapons the world would be destroyed within a week”. On Ants see also The battle against Red Fire Ant Many thanks to Megan Frederickson, Rudy von May, Alessandro Catenazzi, Mo Donnelly, Nigel and Renata Pitman and all the crew of the CICRA Los Amigos biological station in the Peruvian Amazon. |
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29-06-2010 New pictures exhibition till 31-10-2010 at Jardin des Plantes des Paris, Museè d'Histoire Naturelle: Inventaires sans frontieres (with pictures by F. Tomasinelli, X. Desmer, P. Richaud)
30-03-2010 New gallery on Animals living in Italian cities 10-03-2010 New gallery on different jobs in Genova Port for Genoa Port Center 17-02-2010 Four new small photo stories in Strange but true section 16-01-2010 New reportage on Quirimbas National Park in Mozambico 05-12-2009 New exhibit at Natural Science Museum of Bergamo, Italy - Predatori del Microcosmo until 31-01-2010 12-09-2009 More invading species pictures added
02-04-2009 New photo story on entomophagy: Insect as food 20-03-2009 Updated Caves life gallery, a look at biospeleology. |
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| Welcome to Isopoda.net, website of Italian biologist and science photographer Francesco Tomasinelli. My favourite subjects are neglected animals, like insects, arachnids and reptiles, but I work on many other nature topics, travel, events and general photography too. |
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