''Oecophylla longinoda'' (

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

weaver ant) is a species of

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

found in the forested regions of tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. They are one of only two extant species of the genus ''Oecophylla'', the other being ''O. smaragdina''. They make nests in trees made of leaves stitched together using the silk produced by their

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

Description

The worker is a fairly large ant with a length of . The antennae have twelve segments, the first segment exceeding in length the second and third combined. The clypeus, at the front of the head, is large and convex and overhangs the outer edge of the mouthparts. The large mandibles have long triangular teeth which cross over one another when the ant is at rest. This ant ranges in colour from orangeish-brown to dark brown; the thorax is clad in fine pubescence while the abdomen is covered with short erect hairs. The tip of the abdomen has glands that produce

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

s. The feet have suction pads which enables these ants to cling to surfaces with a firm grip.

Distribution and habitat

This weaver ant is widely distributed across the rainforests of sub-Saharan Africa. It is found high in the

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

and one colony can dominate the

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

of one tree or spread across several trees.

Life cycle

After her

nuptial flight Nuptial flight is an important phase in the reproduction of most ant, termite, and some bee species. It is also observed in some fly species, such as ''Rhamphomyia longicauda''. During the flight, virgin queens mate with males and then land to ...

, a newly mated queen founds a

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

in an out of the way part of the canopy. At first she guards the eggs and cares for the growing

e herself, feeding them out of her bodily reserves, and not going out to forage. She may lose 60% of her body weight during this period. When fully grown the larvae

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

te, finally emerging as adult workers about thirty days after the eggs were laid. The workers now take over the building of nests and the care of the young, and the queen devotes herself to the laying of eggs, producing some hundred a day.

Ecology

A weaver ant colony consists of a large number of nests between which ants move at will. The nests are made by binding leaves together using silk produced by the final stage larvae. The queen inhabits one of these nests while the others are used by the worker ants to live in and care for the

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest bro ...

. The ants occupy a three dimensional

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

in the treetops, driving off other ants of their own or other species aggressively, and usually creating a "no-ants-land" where the territory abuts on that of another colony. They are voracious

predators 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 the ...

, foraging on the ground as well as in the trees for insects and other

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 ...

s, and co-operating with each other to tackle large prey. They also feed on the honeydew produced by

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the ...

s, and the ants maintain herds of scale insect for this purpose. ''O. longinoda'' is a natural enemy of the coconut bug ('' Pseudotheraptus wayi''), a pest that has caused up to 67% of the coconut crop in Tanzania to be lost. The weaver ant competes with other species of ant living among the coconut palms, and is sometimes displaced by the ground-based ''

Pheidole megacephala ''Pheidole megacephala'' is a species of ant in the family Formicidae. It is commonly known as the big-headed ant in the USA and the coastal brown ant in Australia. It is a very successful invasive species and is considered a danger to native ant ...

''. However, the weaver ant is considerably more effective as a

biological pest control Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests, such as insects, mites, weeds, and plant diseases, using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also invo ...

agent, and baits are used to selectively control ''P. megacephala'', allowing the weaver ants to flourish and control the coconut bugs.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3880973 Formicinae Hymenoptera of Africa Insects described in 1802 Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille