home · Other · Does an ant have a sting? About bullet ants: the ordinary life of unusual insects. Lifestyle, reproduction

Does an ant have a sting? About bullet ants: the ordinary life of unusual insects. Lifestyle, reproduction

Ants are stem-bellied (that is, those in which the body is divided into two parts) insects. They are close relatives of bees and wasps. Ants live in large colonies, which contain:

These insects live in complex nests, where there are separate chambers for eggs, larvae and food supplies. Ants hatch as larvae and then turn into pupae. They feed on seeds, fruits, honeydew (a sweetish-tasting substance secreted by aphids and other insects that feed on plant sap) and insects. Today there are more than 12,000 species of ants. Here are 10 of the most incredible ones.


Below are 10 of the most incredible ants on Earth.

  1. Robber Ants (Temnothorax Pilagens)

Small yellow and brown ants that steal and feed the offspring of other ant species to their larvae.

  1. Spy ants (Cephalotes specularis)

Spy ants or mirror turtle ants merge with environment and spy on others to identify sources of provisions. Having reached their goal, they calmly steal food from under the nose of their opponent. This unique example visual mimicry in ants.

  1. Super Soldier Ants (Pheidole)

These are nomadic ants that do not live in anthills all the time. Traveling in a huge colony, these insects eat everything they come across, even mammals and birds. They carry their larvae with them. They defend their colony from attackers; cannot mate.


  1. Mafia ants (Cardiocondyla obscurior)

They only have one alpha male. If a stranger approaches the anthill, then the main alpha male shoots from his anus chemical compound, to the smell of which worker ants come running to destroy a competitor. He also constantly checks the clutches of eggs, designating all future males with a chemical signal. It forces worker ants to destroy possible competitors, even at the pupal stage, treating them as aggressors.

  1. Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta )

Fire ants are a species of red and black ants that have powerful sting and poison (its effect can be compared to a burn); live in large earthen mounds. There are known cases where the bites of such ants led to fatal consequences.

  1. Guest ants (Formicoxenus Nitidulus)


  1. Baby killer ants ( Solenopsis Fugax)

They steal larvae from others so they can eat them alive. These ants make a passage into a special chamber where the larvae are stored. To avoid punishment, they release pheromones with a terrible odor, causing other ants to flee, and then run away with the prey.

  1. Punisher ants (Dinoponera quadriceps)

This species has one queen female who is surrounded by 5 beta females. They are all happy to take the queen's place if necessary. It happens that one of the “maids of honor” breaks the rules and lays eggs without permission. After this she is severely punished. If she does not die, she still loses her previous status and becomes a simple worker of the lowest rank.

  1. Ant is a bullet ( Paraponera clavata)

A genus of American large black ants, lives in the tropical forests of America. Its body length is 2.5 cm. It builds its anthill on a tree. The sting of such an ant is the most painful for humans of all insect bites and stings. They say that this pain can be compared to the pain of a bullet wound.


  1. Crazy Ants (Paratrechina longicornis)

They exterminate another type of dangerous fire ants in the southern USA. Fire ant venom is three times more toxic than the insecticide DDT (dust). Most of insects cannot cope with such poison. But the “crazy” neutralize someone else’s poison by covering their body with their own toxin.

Some interesting facts:

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

The bullet ant is the only member of the entire genus Paraponera Smith, which comes from the subfamily Paraponerinae. These large ants with a powerful sting live in the tropics of South and Central America, covering the area from Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the northern part to Paraguay in the southern part. The center of the range of these insects is located in Ecuador.

Home distinctive feature This is a well-developed strong sting with paralyzing poison.

Appearance of an ant

The ant has a large body covered with a hard shell. Body length varies between 18–30 mm depending on the status of the individual. But the queen ant is not much larger than an ordinary worker ant.

The body color of all representatives of this species is almost the same - from red-brown to dark brown. The uterus is noticeably distinguished from the rest of the family by its large abdomen. The entire body, especially the limbs of the ant, is covered with thin needle-like spines. Slightly convex dark eyes are located on the sides of the head. The eggs are yellowish-white, round in shape.

Insect lifestyle

Ants dig deep nests (up to 65 cm) with 1 entrance and 1 exit, which is most often located near the lower gallery. An ant's home resembles multi-storey building– numerous high and long galleries extend to the side along the entire length at different levels from the high vertical tunnel. In addition, insects also take care of the drainage system when building a house. To do this, they build a deep channel extending down from the nest.

Ants are also very careful when choosing a place to place their nest.

The best location for a bullet ant nest is at the base of Pentaclethra macroloba trees.

This plant produces nectar, which ants love to feast on. Sometimes ants place their nests high above the ground - in tree forks or in hollows. The height in this case can reach 14 meters.

Ants of this species settle in small colonies, the number of which usually does not even reach a thousand. But sometimes the number of working individuals in a family can reach three thousand.

Nutrition

Foraging, that is, the search for food, is usually carried out at night. Insect activity during foraging occurs primarily on trees and less frequently on the ground. These ants are perfectly oriented in space, easily finding their way home thanks to the pheromones they secrete, which they use to lay a trail. They can transport food into the home either individually or by tropholaxis, which consists of a group organized and sequential transfer.

The bullet ant is a predatory insect that can feed on both live prey and dead insects. They give particular preference to large insects and small vertebrates. Thus, the prey can be many times larger than the hunter himself. To transport the found prey to its nest, workers must first divide it into small parts using sharp jaws. And only after this the food is transferred inside the nest, where it is fed to the larvae. The larvae eat on their own, without pre-treatment food.

The bullet ant, although it is a predator, in addition to animal food, also likes to eat sweets. Adults enjoy drinking nectar and other sweets. liquid substances plant origin. Very often, ants can be seen running through trees also because, by making small cuts in the bark, they collect nutritious sap. Also, adult insects do not forget about their household members - they bring large droplets of juice to the nest and feed the larvae with them.

They will help you get rid of annoying pests and reap a rich and tasty harvest.

Ant hoverflies live in anthills and feed on ant larvae. Look at what this insect looks like.

Does this insect bring benefit or harm?

In fact, this type of ant is a very peaceful insect. There is no aggression at all, including towards humans. It uses its sting mainly to search for food. In other cases, the ant can use it only for defensive purposes. But even sensing an approaching threat, the ant will first give the enemy a warning signal in the form of a sharp unpleasant odor and hissing. These signals make it clear that it is better not to touch him, as protection will follow in the future. If after this the enemy does not stop, the ant is forced to attack.

The defenses of these ants are very strong. It's not called the bullet ant for nothing. The pain from a bite is practically no different from the pain caused by a bullet wound.

Popularly, in the countries of Central America, this insect is called the 24-hour ant, since the acute severe pain lasts throughout the day.

There is a special scale (Schmidt index) that evaluates the pain intensity of an insect bite. The bullet ant stands at the top of this scale and is ranked 4th.

A bite can pose a mortal danger only to people suffering. In other cases, the bite only provokes paralysis of the bitten part of the body, severe pain And convulsions. This is due to the paralyzing poneratoxin contained in the ant's venom. A person remains in this state for about 24 hours, after which all painful symptoms begin to gradually subside.

To many Indian tribes The bullet ant also brings considerable benefits. The strength of his bite is priceless for them: it helps determine whether the boy is ready for adult life whether it is strong and stable enough. The parents deliberately arrange a close encounter between the bullet ant and their son. To do this, he is given a sleeve made of leaves in which ants live. During his illness, the boy comes close to death, which is necessary for his test. After all, the bite force of this ant is tens of times greater than the bite force of a bee or wasp. But, as a rule, such a bite cannot threaten life, and after two days the boy feels as usual.

Bullet Ants are tropical poisonous looking.Consequences of a bite these ants significantly exceed the impact poison of wasps, bees, hornets. The tropics are famous for their abundance poisonous animals.

IN favorable climatic living conditions many types organisms that have similar morphology, the same way of life, similar behavior. Under such conditions, species with special adaptive reactions gain advantage.

Bullet Ants live in tropical forests of Central and South America. The attachment of this species to forest biotopes is manifested in the structure anthills at tree bases, on trunks, in large forks.

Attention. These ants have several names reflecting the characteristics of the species. This insect with huge flat jaws is called a killer. However, the strangest name is Ant-24. Ants are called bullets because of their stinging apparatus, killer ants because of their strong poison, and 24 because of the duration of the poison.

Killer ants They don’t try to bite everyone, paralyze, or kill everyone. They hunt on others arthropods forest inhabitants. Man and large animals pose a danger to ants, so these insects are forced defend.

Bullet ants have the following characteristics:

  • body length reaches 2.5 cm;
  • color black with a brownish tint;
  • the head is large, cuboid with rounded corners;
  • eyes round, protruding;
  • the abdomen has two additional constrictions.

Due to the size, structure of the jaws and abdomen, ant-24 is difficult to confuse with other representatives of the genus Paraponera Smith.

Bullet Ant. Photo

Consequences of a bullet ant bite

Stinging apparatus located at the end of the abdomen. Length it is 3.5 mm. Poison reservoir(1.9 by 1 mm) located at a distance 3 mm from the tip. This structure of the apparatus led zoologists to an analogy with the movement of a bullet along the barrel of a firearm. This is how the ant received its main name.

I bullet ants not fatal for large animals. However, after being bitten, any creature loses interest in the anthill for 24 hours. During the day it will be busy with its pain. This is the purpose of the poison of ants that know how to defend themselves.

Human, bitten by an ant, for 24 hours feels severe pain. Bite site And adjacent tissues covers paralysis.

Among the Indians of South America, there is an initiation ritual using the poison of a bullet ant. Teenagers wear gloves with ant stings on their hands. Within 10 minutes of wearing gloves, the young men's hands are completely paralyzed. Paralysis lasts 24 hours, and the fingers regain mobility after 2-3 days.

Important. The area bitten by the ant hurts, loses mobility, and changes color to almost black. This is how blood stagnation with capillary hemorrhages manifests itself. The injured person is provided with symptomatic care. A cooling bandage is applied to the bite site. Painkillers help you endure the pain.

A person can meet dangerous ants in jungle, because they do not live in dwellings and settlements. When in the rainforest, be careful around tall spreading trees.

At bite try go to your home, clearing, road, take painkillers, drink more water, because it helps flush out poison from the body.

Lifestyle, role in the ecosystem

Trees in the rainforest are the environment for large quantity large and small inhabitants, therefore Bullet ants live in and around trees. The food source for bullet ants is fruits, arthropods, nectar.

Foragers have two route directions – tree and forest floor Around him. These directions make it possible to provide the anthill with the most varied food.

Bullet Ants lead night Lifestyle. They go hunting at sunset, but the main activity of ants occurs at night.

With this mode of operation, ants can collect plant food before dark. Then the hunt begins for daytime arthropods, which become helpless in the dark. In addition, at night, ants avoid encounters with insectivorous birds that lead a diurnal lifestyle.

All ants activate the movement of substances along trophic chains, control the numbers herbivores arthropods animals.

Inside the anthill always present symbiont bacteria, helping ants digest heavy plant food. With an increase in the amount of sweet food, the number of bacteria increases significantly, which leads to an increase in number of ants and to reproduction the anthill itself. In such a favorable state, the uterus begins lay eggs, from which winged mature individuals emerge.

Mass departure winged ants contributes to the formation of several new anthills. For the insectivorous inhabitants of the tropical forest, the flight of winged ants is abundant food supply. So, following the departure of winged ants, the number of other species increases.

It is important! U bullet ants has its own specific role. Possessing powerful weapons, they are capable protect your tree from invasions of destroyers, collecting herbivorous arthropods.

Having advantages in size, jaw strength, presence of poison, bullets they don't let me in other ants on your tree, rids the plant of aphids. However, the most significant point is security trees from leaf-cutter ants, capable of leaving the plant without most of its leaves in a matter of hours.

Bullet Ant not a monster, He rainforest worker. The function of these formidable insects is in tree conservation, curbing the number of species capable of sudden population increases. They perform this function thanks to the organization of the family and the presence of poison.

Useful video

See what bullet ants look like in the video below: