Extreme Teamwork - Army Ants

Army ants are social insects, living in very large colonies up to half a million ants.  You definitely want to be sure that you do not step on a row of army ants marching across the trail.  They attack prey in huge numbers (as many as 100,000 simultaneously). They slice the prey with their scissor-like mandibles and they spread a dissolving acid on it, which digests the prey’s body so the ants can slurp it up.   After watching this video and seeing how large the soldier ants’ mandibles are, you can see why you would not want to have them crawling up your hiking boots and into your socks.  By the way, in this army, the soldiers are all females…And so are all of the workers….And so is the queen. 

Social insects show teamwork and division of labor and army ants are a prime example of predatory teamwork.  Army ants teach us that “there is strength in numbers”. 

- Fran Zakutansky