bullet ants with caterpillar (10)
Answering to any number of names; Conga ant, bullet ant, 24 hour ant, lesser giant hunting ant, the one thing consistent is the pain they cause. In their natural range from Nicaragua to Paraguay, a single stink is likened to being shot with fiery waves of pain which continue unabated for up to 24hrs. It is no wonder then that a sting by a bullet ant is rated a 4+ on the Schmidt pain index, the highest of any insect. Though apparently some tribes, notably the Satere-Mawe of Brazil have put this dubious benefit to their advantage. They gather up a large number of these ants, up to 100 and then sew them into a glove, stingers facing inwards. This is then presented to a boy of the tribe. In order to graduate to manhood he must don the glove and leave it on for a set period of time without crying out. This process is repeated, sometimes 20 times until the tribe is satisfied and the boy has become a man. Fortunately there are other uses and the poneratoxin is currently being studied in modern medicine as a voltage gated sodium channel inhibitor which blocks synaptic transmission in insects though it acts as a smooth muscle agonist in mammals.
These are the largest of the Ponerine ants achieving lengths of 20-30mm long. They display little variation between castes, workers displaying variation only insofar as a normal distribution curve with no specialization. They make nests at the base of trees and forage on the surrounding trees, climbing into the canopy to search for nectar sources and small invertebrates. If they feel their nest is being threatened they release a musky odor and stridulate from a pair of organs in the thorax.
bullet ants with caterpillar (10)
Answering to any number of names; Conga ant, bullet ant, 24 hour ant, lesser giant hunting ant, the one thing consistent is the pain they cause. In their natural range from Nicaragua to Paraguay, a single stink is likened to being shot with fiery waves of pain which continue unabated for up to 24hrs. It is no wonder then that a sting by a bullet ant is rated a 4+ on the Schmidt pain index, the highest of any insect. Though apparently some tribes, notably the Satere-Mawe of Brazil have put this dubious benefit to their advantage. They gather up a large number of these ants, up to 100 and then sew them into a glove, stingers facing inwards. This is then presented to a boy of the tribe. In order to graduate to manhood he must don the glove and leave it on for a set period of time without crying out. This process is repeated, sometimes 20 times until the tribe is satisfied and the boy has become a man. Fortunately there are other uses and the poneratoxin is currently being studied in modern medicine as a voltage gated sodium channel inhibitor which blocks synaptic transmission in insects though it acts as a smooth muscle agonist in mammals.
These are the largest of the Ponerine ants achieving lengths of 20-30mm long. They display little variation between castes, workers displaying variation only insofar as a normal distribution curve with no specialization. They make nests at the base of trees and forage on the surrounding trees, climbing into the canopy to search for nectar sources and small invertebrates. If they feel their nest is being threatened they release a musky odor and stridulate from a pair of organs in the thorax.