The millions of species of insects that live on earth today play a vital role in our planet's ecosystem. Although most of them are safe, some can cause a lot of trouble for a person, and some can be poisonous and even deadly. From common ants and flies to more exotic beetles, here is a list of the 25 most dangerous insects in the world.
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1. Termites
Termites do not pose a direct danger to humans; they play important role For environment Moreover, in some cultures they are even eaten. But at the same time, baby termites can cause enormous damage to infrastructure, sometimes making houses completely uninhabitable.
3. Black-legged tick
Each year, the black-legged tick infects thousands of people with Lyme disease, which begins with a rash around the bite that resembles a bull's eye. Early symptoms of this disease include headache and fever. As the disease progresses, the victim begins to suffer from problems with the cardiovascular system. Few people die from these bites, but the effects can last for years after an unpleasant tick encounter.
4. Nomadic ants
The first creature on our list that is dangerous in the literal sense of the word is stray ants, known for their predatory aggression. Unlike other ant species, roving ants do not build their own permanent anthills. Instead, they create colonies that migrate from one place to another. These predators constantly move throughout the day, hunting insects and small vertebrates. In fact, the entire combined colony can kill more than half a million insects and small animals in one day.
Most wasps pose little direct danger, but certain varieties, such as the German wasp North America, reach large sizes and can be incredibly aggressive. If they sense danger or notice an invasion of their territory, they can sting repeatedly and very painfully. They will mark their aggressors and in some cases chase them.
6. Black Widow
Although the sting of a female black widow spider can be very dangerous to humans due to the neurotoxins released during the bite, if necessary treatment is provided in time medical care, then the consequences of the bite will be limited to only some pain. Unfortunately, isolated cases of death from a black widow bite still occurred.
7. Hairy Caterpillar Coquette Moth
Megalopyge opercularis moth caterpillars look cute and furry, but don't be fooled by their cartoonish appearance: they are extremely poisonous.
Usually people believe that it is the hairs themselves that sting, but in reality the poison is released through the spines hidden in this “fur”. The spines are extremely brittle and remain in the skin after touching. The poison causes a burning sensation around the affected area, headache, dizziness, vomiting, sharp abdominal pain, damage to the lymph nodes and sometimes respiratory arrest.
8. Cockroaches
The cockroach is known as a carrier of many diseases dangerous to humans. The main danger of living together with cockroaches is that they get into toilets, garbage cans and other places where bacteria accumulate, and as a result, they are their carriers. Cockroaches can cause many diseases: from worms and dysentery to tuberculosis and typhoid. Cockroaches can carry fungi, single-celled organisms, bacteria and viruses. And here's a fun fact - they can live for months without food or water.
10. Bed bugs
A person does not directly feel the bite itself, since the bedbug’s saliva contains an anesthetic substance. If the bug is unable to get to the blood capillary the first time, it can bite a person several times. Severe itching begins at the site of the bug bite, and a blister may also appear. Occasionally, people experience a severe allergic reaction to a bug bite. Fortunately, 70 percent of people experience little to no effects from them.
Bedbugs are household insects and do not belong to the group of vectors infectious diseases, however, in their body they can retain pathogens that transmit infections through the blood for a long time, for example, viral hepatitis B; pathogens of plague, tularemia, and Q-fever can also persist. Greatest harm They deliver to people with their bites, depriving a person of normal rest and sleep, which can subsequently negatively affect moral health and performance.
11. Human gadfly
12. Centipede
The centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is an insect also called the flycatcher, which supposedly appeared in the Mediterranean. Although other sources talk about Mexico. The centipede has become very common throughout the world. Although these insects are unattractive to look at, they generally do a useful job as they eat other pests and even spiders. True, with entomophobia (fear of insects) such an argument will not help. Usually people kill them because they are unpleasant appearance, although in some southern countries centipedes are even protected.
The flycatcher is a predator; they inject poison into the prey and then kill it. Flycatchers often settle in apartments without causing damage to food or furniture. They love moisture; centipedes can often be found in basements, under bathtubs, and in toilets. Flycatchers live from 3 to 7 years; newborns have only 4 pairs of legs, increasing them by one with each new molt.
Typically, a bite from such an insect is not alarming to humans, although it may be comparable to a minor bee sting. For some it may even be painful, but usually it is limited to tears. Of course, centipedes are not the insects that are responsible for thousands of deaths, but many of us would be surprised to learn that someone dies from these bites every year. The fact is that an allergic reaction to insect venom is possible, but this still happens extremely rarely.
13. Black Scorpion
Although scorpions do not belong to insects, since they belong to the order of arthropods from the class of arachnids, we still included them in this list, especially since black scorpions are the most dangerous species of scorpions. Most of them live in South Africa, they can be found especially often in desert areas. Black scorpions are distinguished from other species by their thick tails and thin legs. Black scorpions sting by injecting their victim with venom, which can cause pain, paralysis and even death.
14. Predator
15. Bullet Ant
Paraponera clavata is a species of large tropical ants from the genus Paraponera Smith and the subfamily Paraponerinae (Formicidae), which have a strong sting. This ant is called a bullet because victims of its bite compare it to being shot from a pistol.
A person bitten by such an ant may feel throbbing and constant pain for 24 hours after the bite. Some local Indian tribes (Satere-Mawe, Maue, Brazil) use these ants in very painful rites of initiation of boys to adulthood (which leads to temporary paralysis and even blackening of the stung fingers). During the study chemical composition poison, a paralyzing neurotoxin (peptide) called poneratoxin was isolated from it.
16. Brazilian wandering spider
Also known as Phoneutria, Brazilian wandering spiders are venomous creatures that live in tropical South America and Central America. In the 2010 Guinness Book of Records, this type of spider was named the most poisonous spider in the world.
The venom of this genus of spiders contains a powerful neurotoxin known as PhTx3. In lethal concentrations, this neurotoxin causes loss of muscle control and breathing problems, leading to paralysis and eventual suffocation. The bite is of average pain, the venom causes immediate infection of the lymphatic system, entering the bloodstream in 85% of cases leads to heart failure. Patients feel wild rigor during life; in men, priapism sometimes occurs. There is an antidote that is used on par with antibiotics, but due to the severity of the damage to the body from the poison, the detoxification procedure is effectively equal to the victim's chance of survival.
17. Malaria mosquito
18. Rat fleas
19. African honey bee
African bees (also known as killer bees) are descendants of bees brought from Africa to Brazil in the 1950s in an attempt to improve that country's honey production. Some African queens have begun to interbreed with native European bees. The resulting hybrids moved north and are still found in Southern California.
African bees look the same and in most cases behave similarly to the European bees that currently live in the United States. They can only be detected by DNA analysis. Their stings are also no different from the sting of an ordinary bee. One very important difference between the two species is the defensive behavior of African bees, which is exhibited when defending their nest. In some attacks in South America, African bees have killed livestock and people. This behavior has earned AMPs the nickname “killer bees.”
Additionally, this type of bee is known for behaving like an invader. Swarms of them attack the hives of the common honey bee, invading them and installing their queen. They attack in large colonies and are ready to destroy anyone who encroaches on their queen.
Although not generally perceived as dangerous, fleas transmit numerous diseases between animals and people. Throughout history, they have contributed to the spread of many diseases, such as the bubonic plague.
21. Fire ants
Fire ants are several related ants from the Solenopsis saevissima species-group of the genus Solenopsis, which have a strong sting and poison, the effect of which is similar to a burn from a flame (hence their name). More commonly, this name refers to the invasive red fire ant, which has spread throughout the world. There are known cases of a person being stung by one ant with serious consequences, anaphylactic shock, even death.
22. Brown recluse spider
The second spider on our list, the brown recluse, does not release neurotoxins like the black widow. Its bite destroys tissue and can cause damage that can take months to heal.
The bite very often goes unnoticed, but in most cases the sensations are similar to those of a needle prick. Then within 2-8 hours the pain makes itself felt. Further, the situation develops depending on the amount of poison that enters the blood. The venom of the brown recluse spider has a hemolytic effect, which means it causes necrosis and tissue destruction. The bite can be fatal for small children, elderly and sick people.
23. Siafu Ants
Siafu (Dorylus) - these nomadic ants mainly live in East and Central Africa, but are also found in tropical Asia. The insects live in colonies that can number up to 20 million individuals, all of them blind. They make their journeys with the help of pheromones. The colony has no permanent place residence, wandering from place to place. During the movement to feed the larvae, insects attack all invertebrate animals.
Among such ants there is a special group - soldiers. They are the ones who can sting, for which they use their hook-shaped jaws, and the size of such individuals reaches 13 mm. Soldiers' jaws are so strong that in some places in Africa they are even used to secure stitches. The wound may remain closed for as long as 4 days. Usually, after a Siafu bite, the consequences are minimal; you don’t even need to call a doctor. True, it is believed that young and elderly people are especially sensitive to the bites of such ants, and deaths from complications after contact have been observed. As a result, every year, according to statistics, from 20 to 50 people die from these insects. This is facilitated by their aggressiveness, especially when defending their colony, which a person can accidentally attack.
24. Giant Asian bumblebee
Many of us have seen bumblebees - they seem quite small, and there is no particular reason to be afraid of them. Now imagine a bumblebee that grew up as if on steroids, or just look at the Asian giant. These hornets are the largest in the world - their length can reach 5 cm, and their wingspan is 7.5 centimeters. The sting length of such insects can be up to 6 mm, but neither a bee nor a wasp can compare with such a bite; bumblebees can also sting repeatedly. Such dangerous insects cannot be found in Europe or the USA, but when traveling through East Asia and the mountains of Japan, you can encounter them. To understand the consequences of a bite, it is enough to listen to eyewitnesses. They compare the sensation of a bumblebee sting to a hot nail driven into the leg.
Sting venom has 8 various connections, which cause discomfort and damage soft fabrics and creating a scent that can attract more bumblebees to the prey. People who are allergic to bees can die from a reaction, but there have been cases of death due to the mandorotoxin venom, which can be dangerous if it gets deep enough into the body. It is believed that about 70 people die from such bites every year. It is curious, but the sting is not the main hunting weapon of bumblebees - they crush their enemies with their large jaws.
25. Tsetse fly
The tsetse fly lives in tropical and subtropical Africa, having chosen the Kalahari and Sahara deserts. Flies are carriers of trypanosomiasis, which causes sleeping sickness in animals and humans. Tsetse are anatomically very similar to their common relatives - they can be distinguished by the proboscis on the front of the head and the special manner in which the wings are folded. It is the proboscis that allows them to obtain the main food - the blood of wild mammals in Africa. On this continent there are 21 species of such flies, which can reach from 9 to 14 mm in length.
You should not consider flies so harmless to humans, because they actually kill people, doing this quite often. It is believed that in Africa, up to 500 thousand people are infected with sleeping sickness, transmitted by this particular insect. The disease disrupts the activity of the endocrine and cardiac systems. Then gets amazed nervous system, causing confusion and sleep disturbance. Attacks of fatigue give way to hyperactivity.
The last major epidemic was recorded in Uganda in 2008; in general, the disease is on the WHO list of forgotten ones. However, in Uganda alone, 200 thousand people have died from sleeping sickness over the past 6 years. The disease is believed to be largely responsible for the deteriorating economic situation in Africa. It is curious that flies attack any warm object, even a car, but they do not attack a zebra, considering it just a flash of stripes. Tsetse flies also saved Africa from soil erosion and overgrazing caused by cattle.
The man came up with different methods fight these insects. In the 1930s, all wild pigs were exterminated on the West Coast, but this only lasted for 20 years. Now they are fighting by shooting wild animals, cutting down bushes and treating male flies with radiation in order to deprive them of the opportunity to reproduce.
There are not so many ants in the world that are dangerous to humans. But, as with other animals, human fear has really big eyes: frightening stories about killer ants have become real legends among those who like to tickle their nerves on the sofa under a blanket.
Nevertheless, dangerous ants really exist. In strict scientific language, of course, they are not called “killer ants”; biologists call them differently:
- nomadic ants from both the Dark Continent and South America
- the so-called bullet ant, the painful bite of which exceeds that of a moderate chemical burn
- Australian bulldog ants, whose sting can be fatal to a sensitive person
- fiery, so named precisely for its ability to sting very painfully.
On a note
For individuals with a very severe allergic reaction to insect stings, each of the above ants can be a killer. Moreover, there are isolated cases of suffocation and fatal intoxication of a person from the bite of just one ordinary red ant! Of course, these are exceptional incidents, and because of them, calling all ants deadly is incorrect.
About those species that knowledgeable people are really afraid, we should talk in more detail.
Nomadic ants (siafu)
“Every living thing that came across the path of the column or in the area where the soldiers penetrated was immediately destroyed. With powerful curved jaws, the soldiers grabbed beetles, caterpillars, spiders, worms, other ants, larvae, woodlice, tore them apart and carried them into the column. If a larger prey came across - a lizard, snake, mouse or bird that could not fly, the ants piled up in a black, moving mass, and very soon the animal ceased to exist...
...The ants passed, leaving only the bones of rats trying to escape and chickens forgotten in the barn...”
A. Tambiev, Living ways of the planet
The specificity of these ants is that they do not have an anthill, but they reproduce in temporary bivouacs formed by the worker ants themselves, clutching each other with their jaws. Such a bivouac has the shape of a ball and seems absolutely chaotic, but in fact there is a clear order in it. For part of their life, a colony of such ants wanders in search of food, which is why they got their name.
Soldier ants of all types of nomadic ants look terrifying: their jaws are larger than the head itself, and the insects themselves are very large - a soldier ant is up to one and a half centimeters long. But the female of African nomadic ants is truly huge: with a body length of up to 5 cm in the egg-laying phase, she is the largest of the currently known ants.
This is interesting
Female nomadic ants set another unique record: during breeding periods, they can lay up to 130,000 eggs daily. Such fertility is not observed in any other insect.
African killer ants are not really that. The danger of nomadic ants in general is greatly exaggerated. Their bites are indeed extremely painful and can cause severe allergic reactions. Getting into the center of such a colony can lead to serious bites.
However, there are no known cases of human deaths from nomadic ants. Moreover, the basis of the diet of these ants are other insects, and only very few a large number of small vertebrates die from them - lizards, frogs, bird chicks.
This is interesting
The biology of some birds is closely related to the life of African nomadic ants (another name is siafu). For example, more than half of the diet of the ocellated ant consists of insects frightened off by a moving colony of these ants. No wonder that most During their lives, these birds accompany colonies of nomadic ants as sources of food.
Stray killer ants are nothing more than a figment of the rich imagination of the authors of adventure stories (Russian ones are no less bloodthirsty and just as actively destroy other insects of comparable size), and stories about devastated villages and skeletons gnawed in a matter of seconds are nothing more than a literary exaggeration of colors.
Interesting video: African killer ants attack a male of their own species
These ants got their name for the terrible pain from their bites: their venom contains one of the most powerful toxins in the insect world - poneratoxin. Acute pain after an ant bite, it lasts for at least 24 hours, for which this species also received the name “24-hour ant.”
Video example: a working bullet ant catching a grasshopper
According to the special Schmidt pain scale, the pain from being stung by these ants reaches the highest fourth level and exceeds that from burns and bites of any other insects.
The bullet ant is one of the largest ants in general: the length of a working individual is 2-2.5 cm, the female is up to 3 cm.
They live in South America, and among some Indian tribes they are used for a terrible ritual of male initiation: a sleeve with live ants tied to it is put on a boy’s arm.
After such an ordeal, the hands may be paralyzed for several days, lose sensitivity and turn black.
Interesting video: killer ants in the tester’s initiation ritual into a man
Black bulldog ants
These ants are quite large, but if not for their bites, they would hardly have become particularly famous. According to statistics, in Tasmania people die from their bites every year. more people than from attacks by sharks, poisonous spiders and snakes combined.
The bite of a black bulldog ant causes an acute allergic reaction in humans - more than 3% of those bitten ended up in a state of anaphylactic shock.
At the same time, you can never predict in advance how the body will react to the bite of this insect: the active substances in it differ from those of other related insects - wasps and bees - and even a person who reacts normally to bee stings can become a victim of these ants.
It is noteworthy that, evolutionarily, bulldog ants are very primitive. Perhaps this is due to their strong toxicity.
Fire red ant
Fire ants are considered the most dangerous ants in general. And not so much because of the strong poison and extremely painful bite, but because of its ability to take root in new conditions, quickly spread throughout the world and disrupt the stability of many biocenoses.
The original homeland of fire ants is Brazil, but on merchant ships these insects successfully moved to the southern United States, Australia and China. Today they are also being diligently fought in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but success is so far on the side of the ants.
When a fire ant bites, it injects venom with the toxin solenopsin it contains into the wound. According to the Schmidt scale, the pain from red fire ant bites is the same as the pain from a fire burn, which was the reason for the name of the insect. All over the world, several thousand human bites by these insects and several deaths from anaphylactic shock occur annually: almost all those bitten experience an acute allergic reaction.
Animals, both domestic and wild, also suffer from the bites of these insects. It is estimated that fire ants cost the US budget $5 billion annually, including medical and veterinary costs.
This is interesting
The red fire ant is considered one of the most dangerous invasive insects in the world: it takes root in most places where it comes with humans, and due to its aggressive behavior, it greatly influences the structure of biological populations in the places of introduction.
It should be remembered that all ants, regardless of the degree of danger to humans, are necessary for the biocenosis in which they originally live in nature. Almost all ants are excellent fighters against plant pests, and the same stray ants are also very effective in clearing their paths of movement of any dying or sick animals. Therefore, the concepts of “dangerous” and “harmful” should not be confused, and even especially scary insects should be treated as important participants in interconnected processes in nature.
Interesting video: spider versus large ant - who will win?..
Nomadic ants, regularly migrating in colonies of millions, live in the tropical zones of Africa, Asia and America. Insects do not build permanent nests; their sedentary phase of life lasts no more than 2-3 weeks. They move during the day, and for the night they set up a bivouac from their own bodies, in the center of which is the uterus. A horde that travels 1-3 km leaves nothing alive behind it. Powerful mandibles cut not only insects, but small mammals and birds. Stray ants are called killers, often exaggerating their danger.
Description
Several related groups of true ants share a similar lifestyle called the nomadic ant syndrome. Their characteristic feature is regular migrations. Numerous colonies of insects, reaching several million, move within 1-2 weeks. They carry eggs, larvae, and the queen with them. Nomadic individuals do not build anthills; by interlocking bodies, they build a nest for numerous family members and the queen.
Nomadic ants
Adult
The body of an adult ant consists of three sections: head, chest (mesosoma) and abdomen. The stalk connecting the thoracic segments and the abdomen is called petiole. The chitinous exoskeleton protects and supports the insect's body. On the ant's head there are antennae consisting of 8-10 segments. These are sensory organs that detect vibrations and chemical odors.
Interesting fact. Most wandering ants do not have visual organs or they are greatly reduced. Blind insects navigate in space using their antennae. They communicate with each other by releasing pheromones.
The upper jaws of mandible ants vary in size, but are always well developed. In working individuals, they are designed to carry eggs and larvae and food. For soldiers, this is a powerful weapon. Strong mandibles help tear apart enemies. Insects have 3 pairs of legs; their paws have claws that help them move along a vertical surface. The abdomen of some species ends in a sting.
Interesting fact. Soldier ants of the genus Dorylus do not open their closed jaws even after death.
Communication system
There are 75 glands in the ant's body; they secrete various substances, including pheromones and repellents. Nomadic species have dozens of special signal odors produced in various situations. With the help of pheromones, scouts indicate the direction of movement of the entire column and report the location of the prey.
Ant hierarchy
The nomad ant family consists of hundreds of thousands or millions of individuals. They all obey a strict hierarchy and act as a single harmonious organism. The basis of a large colony is made up of worker ants. These are infertile females. Specialized groups are formed from them: workers, foragers, scouts, soldiers. Males are several times larger than representatives of the working caste. The main figure of the family is the queen. She is the only female involved in giving birth to new members of the colony. The queen's lifespan is 15-20 years.
A significant part of the family is brood - eggs, larvae, pupae. The workers take care of him. In the family, responsibilities are clearly divided, each insect is busy with its own work. A highly organized colony is capable of building bridges and nests from the bodies of ants, resisting enemies, and hunting.
Classification
There are three subfamilies of tropical nomad ants in the world. The main classification occurs according to habitat:
- Aenictus are small to medium-sized insects common in Asia, Australia and Africa. Working individuals are yellow-brown in color, their body length does not exceed 3.5 mm. Males and females of the genus are much larger, reaching 25 mm. Differences are also manifested in the anatomical structure - in working ants the stalk between the chest and abdomen consists of two segments, in males and females there is one. The subfamily unites about 180 species.
- Dorylinae - main habitat regions are tropical Asia and Africa. Large group includes 800 species. The most famous genus is Dorylus. Depending on the hierarchy, ants vary significantly in size. Workers 3 mm, soldiers 13 mm, males 30 mm, females 50 mm. The number of individuals in one migrating colony is about 20 million.
- Ecitoninae - insects are found in the New World in the United States, the southern border of their habitat is Argentina and Chile. American raptors spend most of their lives traveling and hunting. During migration, places in the column are clearly allocated. Worker ants move in the middle and bear offspring. Soldiers on the sides protect their relatives from enemy attacks. The color of the imago ranges from brown to black.
Lifestyle
Nomadic ant syndrome manifests itself in the behavior and reproductive characteristics of insects. Its signs:
- collective foraging;
- construction of temporary nest-bivouacs;
- regular change of phases of settlement and migration;
- subordination of the reproductive cycle to the colony's movement schedule.
With the onset of dusk, the construction of the bivouac begins. A temporary nest in the shape of a ball from the bodies of working individuals is built in a secluded place. The queen and offspring are placed inside. The bivouac has several entrances. The diameter of the bivouac is about 1 meter; it requires 500-700 thousand ants to build. African Siafu ants dig nests in soft soil. Blind mole rats quickly prepare a shelter for a huge family of up to 20 million individuals. Their distinguishing feature is the absence of a sting. It is replaced by powerful mandibles; painful bites cause discomfort even to elephants. The jaws easily cut the coverings of insects and animals and tear off pieces of flesh from them.
Nomadic ants at any age feed exclusively on meat. For small larvae, hunters hunt for spiders, caterpillars, beetles, locusts, and scorpions. Birds that make nests on the ground and small vertebrates (lizards, snakes, rodents) become victims of predators. The colony cleans the found corpses of large animals, leaving behind only bones.
Features of reproduction
The reproductive function of the colony is assigned to the queen uterus. Tropical nomad ants have one queen, while other species may have several. The large winged female mates with the male during her first flight. Until the end of her life, she uses up the stored sperm. The adult fertilized queen sheds her wings. She is always protected by working ants. During movement, the cylindrical elongated abdomen of the female is slender. As hundreds of thousands of eggs mature, it swells. By the beginning of the stationary phase, the larvae turn into cocoons and do not require nutrition. All the meat obtained by the hunters is given to the queen.
Ants are hymenopteran insects with complete transformation. This means that their life begins with the egg phase, then the larva emerges. Ants turn into adults after pupation. The formation of eggs begins during the period of sedentary life. The fertility of a female is 200-300 thousand pieces. The embryonic period lasts up to three weeks. By the time of the new migration, larvae emerge from the eggs.
This process is synchronized by the development of pupae; adults emerge from the cocoons of the previous clutch. To feed the larvae, the colony sets off. By the time they pupate, the column finds a place to stay.
Once a year, the queen makes a special clutch from which reproductive females and males emerge. As they age, they leave the family and form their own colonies.
Benefits and dangers for humans
The beneficial actions of stray insects do not exclude danger to humans. Once on the path of the colony, a person risks being bitten by hundreds of individuals. Nomadic ants do not bite their prey immediately. They crawl under clothes in large numbers and act on a signal. For people prone to allergies, such an attack ends in anaphylactic shock. Attacks on people and animals are rare. The main prey of ants is other insects. Tropical wandering ants clear forests of animal corpses and destroy sick and weak individuals.
Associated with small insects who spends his whole life in hard work. In most cases they are harmless. The only danger they pose is damage to the crop or slight redness at the site of the bite, which quickly passes. But there are also very dangerous representatives of this species in the world. Killer ants are capable of attacking people and stinging mercilessly, releasing dangerous poisons under the skin.
This type of insect is typical for tropical and subtropical latitudes, where the climate is warm and humid. The largest populations are found in Africa; the species lives in Central and Southern Asia. They are also called wandering ants or Siafu army ants. These are large individuals, whose body length is about 1.5 cm.
They got their name because of their characteristic way of life. Nomadic ants do not build a stationary anthill. They constantly change their habitat.
Interesting!
Every day the colony walks about 1 km. They move in a wide column, which gradually tapers towards the tail. Its width can reach 15 m and its length up to 45 m.
Nomad ants strictly adhere to a certain order during the procession. The edges of the column are protected by soldier ants; worker ants move closer to the middle, carrying food and future offspring.
The species is native to South America, distributed over much larger areas and can be found in the USA and Mexico. Individuals have small sizes, which do not exceed 6 mm. African killer ants have excellent adaptive abilities, so their distribution area is constantly expanding.
Looking at the photo of this species, attention is immediately focused on the powerful sting, which has some resemblance to a similar organ of a scorpion. They also have fairly large chewing jaws, which play not only a defensive role, but also as a way to transport food particles.
Poisonous ants are recognized as the most great view among relatives.
- The body length of a worker ant is 2-2.5 m. Their female grows up to 3 cm.
- The predominant habitat is South America.
- has a black-brown color.
- Characteristic feature is the presence of a powerful sting, inside of which a large amount of dangerous poison is concentrated.
This species does not like to roam and prefers to build anthills deep in the soil. There is enough moisture there for them to produce offspring. A characteristic feature of the anthill is its simplicity of design. Wasps and spiders are used as food, as well as plant and fruit juices.
Interesting!
The queen bulldog ant can penetrate other people's anthills and kill the true queen. After this, a new queen remains in the colony. Working individuals begin to serve her.
Bulldogs live only in wild environments and are not inclined to occupy human homes. Once near an anthill, a person should immediately leave this place. The guards of the nest instantly give the command, and almost the entire colony goes into battle. Bites of this species are considered the most dangerous in the world. They can lead to severe anaphylactic shock, and in more severe cases, even death.
Thus, it is quite difficult to assess the danger of a bite from each species. This is due to the characteristics of the body and its resistance. In habitats of dangerous individuals, local residents are always notified and educated about the possible danger and precautions.
