Marching ants are a well-known group of ants that are known for their majestic marching ranks and are known as the "ultimate hunters". Imagine what pressure a colony of 20 million soldiers would put on its opponents when it moved forward like a tide, while most animals would only run away. Some have even said that marching ants can "chase and kill all animals that are slower than them." With such a factual basis and some true and false literary exaggerations, the marching ants are described as extremely fierce. The area swept by the "Ant Soldiers" stretched for several kilometers and became dead silent, leaving only many bones. However, such a description may be a bit exaggerated, if there is such an ant colony, there will be no other animals in the world, not even humans.
<h3 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > characteristics of marching ants</h3>
In the order Hymenoptera, marching ants belong to the subfamily Marching Ants. As of 2019, a total of 696 species (including 119 subspecies) of the 6 subfamily of marching ants have been recorded worldwide. In China, a total of 3 subfamilies, 5 genera and 43 species (including 4 subspecies and 1 variant) of the subfamily Marching Ant, the subfamily bicosal marching ant and the subfamily of the rough-horned mammoth ant have been recorded.
The number of ants in different marching ant colonies ranges from tens of thousands to tens of millions. The average number of supergroups is much higher than that of other ants, unlike most ants. For example, due to the large number of eggs, the queen ant becomes very bloated; the worker ant's vision requirements are greatly reduced, most of them no longer have eyes; the cycle of feeding and hunting alternate lifestyles, etc., in general, marching ants have the following characteristics:
(1) They feed almost exclusively on prey obtained from large-scale operations;
(2) their hunting processions extend from the station uninterrupted, and there is at least one such queue;
(3) Nest life is cyclical and frequently migratory;
(4) Migration often depends on the size, type, age, eggs and larval conditions of the nest;
(5) The new nest is established by a new queen taking away a part of the worker ants to form two or more sub-nests.
Most ants in the marching ant subfamily have these traits, and some others have similar traits, but not all of them. Large-scale colony activity gives army ants access to resources that other ants don't have access to—small vertebrates and other social insects—and these prey are almost impossible for small colonies of ants to get.
<h3 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why you hunt in all directions</h3>
According to genetic analysis, about 110 million years ago, the ancestors of marching ants began to part ways with other ants. About 60 million years ago, the subfamily of the traveling ant was successfully evolved; another subfamily of marching ants evolved successfully 50 million years ago; the subfamily of the bichondria marching ant was a little later, and the specific time of evolution has yet to be further verified. There is no doubt that each of them evolved successfully independently, that is, the descendants of the same ancestor experienced different circumstances, but in the end, they almost followed the same path.
In Asia, Africa and Europe, the marching ant subfamily ants and the bichonopod subfamily ants dominate, with the number of ants in the nest of the marching ant reaching more than 20 million, while the subfamily of the wandering ant is active in the American continent, the population size of the swimming ant can reach about 1 million, the group size seems to be much smaller, but the huge palate of the subfamily ant soldier ant is extremely impressive.
So why did the marching ants, who were so far apart, end up on the same safari path?
If we consider another leafcutter ant that can match the marching ant, we seem to have the answer. Leafcutter ants are found only in the tropical and subtropical regions of the American continent, and their nests can reach millions of individuals. But these ants are "vegetarians." They only collect leaves. Adult leafcutter ants draw sap from the leaves. Most of the remaining leaves are chewed and used to culture the fungus. They then feed the larvae with the fungal entity "mushroom".
If large ant colonies do not want to eat grass, they must follow the path of predatory development. Fixed predation areas quickly run out of resources, and marching ants must move elsewhere. Therefore, these descendants with a huge nest group, although they have long been old and dead, eventually choose the same way of life, which is convergent evolution.
<h3 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the life of a marching ant</h3>
The Bruceum is one of the most thoroughly studied marching ants in humans and is found in large numbers in the rainforests of Brazil, Peru and Mexico. The day begins at dawn, when the whole colony is still huddled together, with worker and soldier ants connecting each other with their legs and feet to form a perimeter protective layer, and the core of the colony is a queen and thousands of immature larval individuals. There may also be some males and queens who have not mated during certain seasons. Such groups were formed before dark the first day. As the sunlight passes through the gaps in the rainforest and the intensity of the light increases, the "ant colony" begins to disintegrate, and the fallen part quickly converges into an "ant stream" that can travel 20 meters per hour in one or several directions. There were no orders from ants during the whole process, and all the individuals, inspired by the subsequent troops, marched confidently, each route of advance branched out like a large tree, and the "canopy" was the first force, and if they came into contact with their prey, they would rush up to kill the prey and transport it back to the camp. When the sun goes down, all the ants return to the camp and build up the "colony" again to build strength for the next day.
The colony will live in a fixed place for about 2-3 weeks. At this stage, the body shape of the queen after mating changes. The queen's abdomen begins to swell and begins to fill with eggs. In the first week, queens can lay 55,000-65,000 eggs. Over the next few days, the queen entered the peak of growth. The queen will lay 100,000-300,000 eggs. After a few days the eggs hatch into larvae. The addition of new larvae has led to a linear increase in the population's demand for food, and the surrounding resources are rapidly depleted. Now that the queen has become slim after laying her eggs, it's time to set off. Over the next 2-3 weeks, the colony wanders around in search of food for new larvae, until a new batch of worker ants emerges and the queen's belly is filled with eggs, and the colony settles down in a food-rich place and enters the next cycle.
<h3 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the sentient beings under the city</h3>
Marching ants are a true super predator, but there are still prey that can escape the attack of this hungry ant colony. Some of them escape in the usual ways, such as flies flying away and grasshoppers jumping away, and some have evolved special "marching ant defense techniques".
One escape mechanism is to exploit the blindness of marching ants, but it requires great courage and inner peace. When faced with millions of ants, the slug will be completely stationary; if it moves, the marching ant will immediately detect the vibration and attack. The beetles used the same method and their own protective equipment, quietly waiting for the passage of the ant army.
mucus
When marching ants encounter other social insects, it is inevitable that the two sides will fight. In a face-to-face conflict, the marching ant is likely to win. Of course, if the opponent is a leaf-cutting ant that also has a million troops, the marching ant will retreat. But most ants, including many leafcutters, do not have such a strong "military force". Their soldiers had to bow down and fight until the last breath to buy a little precious time for the whole team to evacuate. During field trips, some scholars have seen homeless ants that have been driven away by double marching ants. It is not until the marching ants leave that they return to their original homes. There are also termites that use the anthills that have been built for many years to resist the invasion of marching ants and keep a safe area.
The most affected social insects may be paper-nesting wasps, which are limited in number and unsurpassed. Fortunately, they can fly, and escaping is their general reaction, but some will sound the alarm before the enemy approaches. In the event of an intrusion,
Large numbers of wasps would be stationed at the entrance to the hive, frantically flapping their wings to vibrate the hive to warn their hive companions; others would stick their heads out of the hive and hit their palates, making a buzzing sound that could be heard from a distance. The more aggressive wasps would try to fly through army ant colonies, selecting individual ants and throwing them into the distance, but that wouldn't help. Some wasps will gather together and block the entrance to the hive with their bodies, but they will soon be dragged away and killed by ants.
Marching ants are too powerful, which often leads to rare behavior of prey: in West Africa, large earthworms find marching ants coming face to face, will they enter the soil? No, they will slip up the nearest tree. Some snails blow bubbles enough to disguise and protect themselves, even vertebrates are not immune: the long legs and amazing jumping ability of African pointed rats were developed to quickly escape the marching ant colony, which can quickly escape the marching colony.
There are victims and beneficiaries. The behavior of marching ants disturbs a large number of small animals and insects, but there are also predators. Some birds always fly in front of marching ant colonies, killing small insects that are fleeing for their lives. Some ants and beetles disguise themselves as marching ants to share their food.