View allAll Photos Tagged weaverant
Did you know the Weaver ant larvae produce silk? In fact The nest is glued together using the silk from these living glue bottles.
The Major workers carry larvae in their jaws and squeeze them gently making the larvae secrete silk in liquid form. Then the Major worker carefully weaves two leaves together by squeezing, depositing and dragging the resulting silk line between the 2 surfaces as seen in the picture.
I was in awe watching the process unfold. I was so astonished by the level of cooperation these guys show. The Major worker ant on the right was holding the 2 leaves together with unimaginable strength while the designated "Weaver" took it's time to show up and slowly get into the business. The "Weaver" then glued the two leaves together with amazing perfection!
Was taking a walk in Pasir Ris Park to test my new Raynox 250. Managed to catch this Ant mimicking Crab Spider overpower a weaver ant and dragging it back home.
Jeniang, Kedah, Malaysia.
Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius, 1775. Hymenoptera, Formicidae. CN: Kerengga, Weaver ant. Don't let this land on your head!
Guarding weaver ant.
© Harshith JV
Place: Mangalore
File name: IMG_2284.enhanced.upload.JPG
File date: July 29, 2014 at 7:02 PM IST
Common name: Weaver ant
Species ID: Oecophylla smaragdina
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_ant
Info: ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/weaver-ants/chadwick-text , www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/inverts/weaver_ants.htm
Also at: www.flickr.com/photos/harshithjv/15830858255/ , 500px.com/photo/90284287/ , www.facebook.com/HJV.Photography/photos/823311497691510/ , plus.google.com/photos?pid=6083606516202366930&oid=10...
#photography #macro #closeup #reversemacro #ant #weaverant #oecophylla #smaragdina #Arthropoda #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Formicinae #50mm #canon #600d #canon600d #mangalore
At a roadside restaurant (Hilltop Bar and Restaurant, Tiracol) on a hill in North Goa.
Thanks to James below for identifying this ant as Oecophylla smaragdina
Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand--This weaver ant has somehow gotten on the wrong side of his mates. Perhaps he is from another colony.
This weaver ant might be doing some housekeeping job out of its nest.
Weaver Ants are those ants with reddish long bodies and very long legs that construct their nests by getting leaves together neatly. Multiple leaves are held together with the white fibers. Queen ant lays eggs on surface of these leaves internally and the pupa grows up in the shady cool place. This is how the weaver ant's nest looks like. This is a smaller specimen with two or three leaves woven together, but there are larger ones where four or more leaves are also strung together.
The ants do not have silk, but their larva does. However, larva cannot move around. So, the worker ants carry larva around and the little one spins enough silk to keep the leaves together as a house.
Oecophylla smaragdina is widespread in the Old World tropics and are present the most sophisticated nest-building activities of all weaver ants.The weaver ant (O. smaragdina) is a dominant canopy ant in tropical India and Australasia with colonies of up to 500 000 ants housed in nests made of leaves fastened together by larval silk and scattered across tens of trees. Workers draw leaves together, often forming long chains, and glue them together with larval silk. The colonies are very large and highly polydomous. Queens are pre-dominantly though not exclusively once-mated and colonies are usually single-queened, but most Northern Territory (Australia) colonies are polygynous. The workers are highly polymorphic (seen also in a fossilized colony), show complex polyethism, and present a much-studied rich pheromonal repertoire for the colony's tasks. Colony odor is partly learned, showing a "nasty neighbor" effect in reactions to other colonies of this highly territorial ant, and partly intrinsic to each individual. The odor varies over time and differs between the nests of a colony. Not surprisingly, Oecophylla ants are hosts to a variety of inquilines, such as spiders, which mimic the colony odor to escape detection. In addition, a constellation of Homoptera benefit from ant protection, yet the activities of the ants in controlling pest species make these ants beneficial insects (they are also human food in some areas) (adapted from Crozier et al., 2010). Reference: taxo4254.wikispaces.com/Oecophylla+smaragdina
Dream House -
A leisure stroll among the evergreen shrubs is better than window shopping. They don’t take down the bag on display unless it is sold but nature hangs new stuff all the time. A colony of weavers was doing renovation work on a tree and I observed them from a distance. Everyone was busy cutting, holding, gluing and lending a helping hand to shape their house. Let’s take a cue from these ants, focused and work hard. Magnificent mansion from builders so small, each tiny step counts and add up to our goal. In my night dream, I managed a peek into their green air pockets. There were multitudes in the interior and a pampered queen was nesting on luxurious sofa with a lighted bulb above.
Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand--These weaver ants make their nest in the canopy of trees. They are taking this unlucky legless lizard up to trunk of the tree to become part of the nest's food supply.
Weaver ants harvesting red blood berries - to read details of how they do this - do visit my blog "Lilliputian World in my Backyard" at www.cheernature.com/2014/07/lilliputian-world-in-my-backy...
A weaver ant biting me :D...it didn't hurt at all though as the weaver ant's mandibles didn't pierce through to my inner skin.
Not happy with the angles but it's not easy shooting my own left palm/hand.
So who want to be my hand model?
More ants: orionmystery.blogspot.com/2012/04/tropical-ants.html
Teamwork Against Tiger Beetle
NB:Decided to upload this wider view
of an earlier image thanks to the suggestion from the great folks at NSN:
www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=142086
The hi-res version of this image is available for purchase at
Thanks to Richard Vernier and 2 other members of BugGuide for ID!
The ant queen (about 2.5-3cm long) gradually changed color to near-white and died about a month later, as the babies? emerged as seen in the image below which was taken on November 2, 2008.
Acting as a guard, this weaver ant is protecting other worker ants migrating to their new nest.
Photo location : Jember, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Actually, a pretty good recipe without ant eggs too.
www.thailandunique.com/unique-food-recipes/weaver-ants-eg...
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