Know Your Enemy
Accurate identification of pests is as important as choosing the best preventive pest management available on the market today. Preventive Pest Control has compiled a list of most common pests to help you identify the problem.
Black Legionary Ant
(Eciton b. parvispinum)
Characteristics
The black legionary ant is a species of E. burchellii., and belongs to subspecies E. b. parvispinum. The workers of parvispinum have a black metasoma, while the minor workers are all black. These ants are nomads, and can forage for food without scouting in advance. They can have multiple queens that can produce millions and millions of eggs in just a month.
The Queen
She is larger than the workers and has 10 to 12 segments on her antennae.
Males
They are larger than the queen and have a large cylindrical abdomen. They have a rare genitalia and modified mandibles. Their antennae have 13 segments, and may even be confused with wasps because of their wings.
Workers
Workers are blind and will rely on sound and scent to know where their prey is.
Habitat
They are commonly found in Costa Rica and live in dry forests, rain forests, mountains, and so on. They do not have a home since they are always travelling. Although they have a nomadic phase to allow the queen to lay her eggs, they will still go back to hunting with the workers carrying the eggs during the day, and will create their nests or bivouac at night.
Behavior
As a legionary ant, they travel in vast swarms as they prey their food. Insects and other animals can feel their presence even though these ants can move silently and are blind. Most insects will be scared of them and will even create noises as they flee the scene.
Food
Just like the E. b. foreli, the parvispinum are ferocious social hunters that will eat any insect or small vertebrates in sight. Unlike other ant species, they do not have a permanent nest because they always need to feed their enormous population.
Life Cycle
The queen’s main purpose is to make the colony larger. In some colonies, they only have one queen, but others may have multiple queens. The queen can mate with multiple males and can even create around 3 to 4 million eggs in a month, which is why they can easily be seen in large numbers that make these species like a legionnaire. The queen is able to produce millions of eggs per month because she has the ability to expand her abdomen significantly. Males are created to mate. As soon as they are born, they will fly off in search of a queen. Once the eggs are hatched, they will extend the worker caste that will assist the queen in taking care of the brood and her.
Other Information and Tips
The black legionary ants are closely compared to the workers of foreli because of their similarities, but differ in color. Both species are army ants, and should be considered dangerous because of their ability to infest insects and animals. It is advised not to approach these ants when seen and to go far from them as possible.
Photo by Smartse (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons / resized from original
