Army Ants On The March With The Miniature Military

As top arthropod predators in tropical rainforests, the biology of army ants is built around hunting in vast battalions. Discover life on the forest front line.

- Daniel Kronauer

Many of us, at one time or another, will have paused to admire ants scurrying up and down the cracks between our patio slabs or among the blades of grass in our lawns, working efficiently in their co-operative societies to build nests, retrieve food and feed their young. In the UK, the species you’re most likely to encounter is the common black garden ant, which lives in colonies of up to a few thousand individuals.

But further afield, in rainforests around the world, there are ants that take co-operation and efficiency to another level. They move as a single giant battalion, overwhelm prey animals many times their own size, and create ‘buildings’ out of their own bodies. These are the army ants, whose spectacular behavior] and biology has inspired the writings of early explorer-naturalists as well as novels and horror films.

The name ‘army ant’ refers to a group of ants that comprises some 400 species, most of which occur in tropical Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. I have studied these ants for the past 17 years, following their colonies for weeks at a time and enduring their bites and stings – and their fascinating adaptations never cease to amaze me.