Army Ants

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The term Army Ant is broadly applied to over 200 species of migratory ant due to their aggressiveness, predatory nature and massive colony size.

Army ants do not construct a permanent nest so commonly associated with other species of ant, instead, they construct a bivouac, a nest of up to 500,000 living worker ants. Army ants forage and feed over massive areas, predating on all on which they find, which means the colony is constantly on the move.

In 2003 Cornell University conducted a study of thirty species of so-called Army Ants. This study indicates that the ecitonine and doryline army ants together formed a monophyletic group which all share identical genetic markers that suggest a common ancestor and so the two subfamilies can now be considered part of the single subfamily Ecitoninae.