''Dorylus molestus'' is a species of African army ant.

Taxonomy

Older names include '' Anomma molestus'', ''Dorylus (Anomma) molestus'', ''Dorylus (Anomma) nigricans molestus'', ''Dorylus molestus'' (Gerstaecker, 1859) and ''Dorylus nigricans molestus''.

Description

Males or drones of all dorylus species are so called "sausage flies" and are among the largest ant morphs. Some ''Dorylus molestus'' queen are the largest known extant ants. Queens typically grow to but can reach . Its size of Molestus queens allows it to hold the world record in egg laying. Workers (sterile females in the presence of the only living queen) range from . Huge and specialised soldier morphs (permanent sterile females) provide protection during migration raids.

Ecology

''D molestus'' is an East African surface swarm raider army ant. The species is important to its ecology; it supports myrmycophile

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, especially east African birds that attend its raids and depend on the ants' presence in their habitat. Its

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

y habits contribute to (mainly)

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

. They attack all animals that are unable to flee and smaller animals that react too slowly, including other ''Dorylus'' groups. They invade nests of other social species, such as

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

s. ''D molestus'' builds temporary surface bivouac nests, which are regularly attacked by a smaller subterran army ant of the same genus, ''Dorylus (Typhlopone) fulvus badius''. A colony engages in foraging raids and also in straight migration raids. Colonies that lose their sole queen sometimes fuse with other colonies or produce (

haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

) males before dying out. The species is capable of surviving in environments other than forests, but it is not yet known if they can survive easily without even a small nearby forest. This ant species inspired early

swarm intelligence Swarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in ...

studies.

External links

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Dorylinae Hymenoptera of Africa Insects described in 1922 {{ant-stub