Reproduction

How does the bullet ant produce its young?

Breeding begins with the fertile, winged males and new queens leaving the nest in a swarm. They meet up and mate with the males losing their wings soon after this.

The queen will then go and dig a nest where she can lay her first eggs. Their eggs are small and oval shaped.

These hatch in to larvae which she raises. They will go through a series of molts before reaching a stage where they enter a protective cocoon and then emerge. These become the first workers in the nest.

It takes six to ten weeks for them to complete their lifespan from egg to adult.

Occasionally larvae are moved to warmer areas in the nest which speeds up development.

Females will only produce fertilized queens which can establish their own colony when they have enough workers to sustain their nest. She holds sperm from her initial mating in a pouch on the abdomen which is only opened when they choose.

Queens have significantly longer lifespans than workers.

Behavior

What does the bullet ant do with its day?

These ants will form colonies with several hundred members. Some grow as large as 3,000 individuals.

Hunting takes place on their own or in a small group.

The legs of the bullet ant are sticky and this allows them to climb well along with allowing them to be agile.

These insects are active during the day.

Credit: Graham Wise from Brisbane, Australia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Predators and Threats

What is impacting the survival of the bullet ant?

Cane toads are a natural predator of this species. These ants may cannibalize one another. They are parasitized by the phorid fly which lays its eggs in an injured fly. A single ant can harbor as many as 20 fly larvae.

If the nest is threatened workers rush to the entrance and attack the threat. During this time they may produce a loud buzzing sound which works to deter the predator.

Like many species in the Amazon they are threatened through habitat loss.

Quick facts

In some parts of the bullet ants range adolescents will undergo an initiation ritual in which they are bitten by one of these ants in an effort to prove their strength. In some areas a young man must be bitten 20 times before being considered a warrior.

The bite of the bullet ant is believed to be the most painful inflicted by any insect. This is mainly used for defense and when a human is bitten it proves highly painful.

They are also known as the conga ant or lesser giant hunting ant. Some call them the 24 hour ant due to their pain lasting for around 24 hours.

Bullet ants are the only species in the subfamily. They last had a living ancestor roughly 90 million years ago.