Army ant
The army ant marches through the jungle in a giant swarm, like a living river of ants. It has long legs and a golden to dark brown body, and its soldiers carry huge hooked jaws. It never builds a real nest. Instead the ants hang onto each other and make a living nest out of their own bodies.
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Fun facts
A hunting raid can be 200 metres long, with up to 200,000 ants taking part.
The ants fill holes in their path with their own bodies and even link up to make living bridges.
A colony can have up to 600,000 ants but only one queen.
Birds follow the swarms to catch the insects that jump away from the ants.
More than 500 other kinds of animals live around these ants, more than for any other single animal kind.
Most asked questions about Army ant
?Where do army ants live?
In the shady rainforests of Central and South America.
?Do army ants have a nest?
Not a dug one. They make a living nest by hanging onto each other, and they move it often.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eciton burchellii
- Named by
- Westwood, 1842
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Eciton army ant
Where the facts come from
- Eciton burchellii (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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