ARMY ANTS OF THE AMAZON

This short presentation was created to provide educators and students information

to enhance learning about this subject.

Linda Gorman Hayes

ANTS, ALTHOUGH ADMIRABLE, ARE AWFULLY AGGRAVATINGBY, WALTER R. BROOKS

The busy ant works hard all day And never stops to rest or play.He carries things ten times his size,And never grumbles, whines or cries.And even climbing flower stalks,He always runs, he never walks.He loves his work, he never tires,And never puffs, pants or perspires.

Yet though I praise his boundless vim I am not really fond of him.

JUST WHERE DID THESE FIRE ANTS COME FROM?

NORTH CAROLINA FIRE ANT

ipminc.wordpress.com

MAP OF THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST

WHAT IS THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST?

The Amazon Rain Forest is an area of land that has many tall trees, a warm climate, and lots of rain. It is located in South America. The Amazon Rain Forest is the largest rain forest in the world.

The forest is made up of four layers:

The emergent layer The canopy

The understory The forest floor

THE AMAZON ARMY ANT

LIFE CYCLE OF AN ANT

It takes about 8 -12 weeks for an ant to hatch from its egg

Adult

eggslarva

pupa

Imported Red Fire Ants Amazon Army Ants

Traveled from South America by boat and now live in the southern United States

Live in the Amazon Rain Forest in South America

Workers live about 1- 1 ½ months

Life span 3 – 13 months

Create mounds of nests in the ground and set up their home anywhere

Do not make permanent nests, but build nests by attaching their bodies together

Very aggressive hunters Attack in large numbers and swarm their prey

Eat leaves, stems, roots, spiders, bees, birds, and mice

Eat just about anything

Eat other insects that destroys crops

Eat what is dead or dying on the forest floor

Bite and sting Bite and sting

FACTS ABOUT THE ARMY ANT

Since the army ant is very aggressive, they are at the top of the insect food chain- that means there aren’t too many other insects that eat them.

Even though they are blind, they communicate by touch, sound and scent.

They clean the forest floor of the dead and rotten matter.

BOTH ANT GROUPS HAVE JOBS

Red Fire Ant Amazon Army Ant

Queen – lays the eggs Queen – lays the eggs

Young workers – take care of the brood

Soldiers – protects the colony

Middle age – clean and protect the colony

Eldest – forage for food Workers – forages for food and feeds the soldiers

REFERENCES

Slide 2 – Ant poem by Walter R. Brooks http://www.oocities.org/heartland/1133/animalpoems/bugspoems.html

Slide 3 – fire ant picture: http://web.biosci.utexas.edu/fireant/index.html

Slide 4 – North Carolina fire ant http://ipminc.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ant1.jpg

Slide 5 – South America and the Amazon Rain Forest Image

http://enviro-map.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/amazon_forest.jpg

Slides 7 & 10 – Amazon Army Ant

http://www.bugaboopest.com/army%20ant.png

Glosopedia http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=7

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/08/army-ants/moffett-text