Fig 1. Eciton burchelli soldier (larger ant) with a worker ant
Accessed from:
http://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Making-a-Living/Army-Ants/i-SZGPQjg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ecitoninae
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ecitoninae
In some tropical ecosystems, there is a most formidable and ferocious predator that wanders the forest fueling it's insatiable desire for food. It can completely ravage an entire ecosystem leaving it almost bare. This organism might sound like some sort of large, ferocious mammal that prowls the forest floor, but it is no larger than a twenty cent coin. It is the army ant. Army ants have come to be known and feared in many tropical ecosystems as a successful, dominant predatory organism. What these ants lack in size, they certainly make up for in sheer numbers. With colonies numbering in the millions, these ants can quickly overwhelm any prey they encounter, regardless of size. Army ants are a distinct subfamily of ants that are categorized by a vast repertoire of behavioural, physiological and morphological traits known as army ant adaptive syndrome. These traits include foraging, nesting and migratory beahviours as well as morphological adaptations of the Queen. These traits are what makes the army ant so successful as a predator and also unique. Army ants also play a vital role as a keystone species in their respective ecosystems making them imperative to the health and success of their environments. The highly useful traits that these ants have adapted has allowed them to become successful in many environments across the globe (Fig 2).