Terrifying traps in the tree tops of Costa Rica built by ants let the creatures capture large prey and gang up to bite them to death, a new study has revealed.
The strange nests, comparable to medieval torture racks, enable the insects to capture prey much larger than themselves and rip them to shreds.
The technique allows the worker ants to kill prey that is almost fifty times heavier than the species, experts say.
Ants lie in wait inside a network of tunnels burrowed into a tree trunk, waiting for their unsuspecting prey to pass by.
They then emerge from Swiss cheese-like holes dotted across its surface, clamping on to the leg of their victim before starting to feed.
Terrifying traps in the tree tops of Costa Rica built by ants let the creatures capture large prey and gang up to bite them to death, a new study has revealed. This image shows Allomerus decemarticulatus ants using a similar method to capture a grasshopper and a wasp
The unusual activity was first observed in the ant species Azteca brevis, which lead author Markus Schmidt says he encountered in Costa Rica’s Piedras Blancas National Park in 1999.
Unable to find any scientific research on it, he and his colleague Alain Dejean of the University of Toulouse in France decided to investigate further.
The pair discovered that A. brevis ants were employing a unique hunting technique, using teamwork and their inspired tree trunk contraption to ambush predators.
The unusual activity was first observed in the ant species Azteca brevis. The technique allows the worker ants to kill prey that is almost fifty times heavier than the species, experts say
Ants lie in wait inside a network of tunnels burrowed into a tree trunk, waiting for their unsuspecting prey to pass by. They then emerge from Swiss cheese-like holes dotted across its surface, clamping on to the leg of their victim before starting to feed
Speaking to New Scientist, Dr Schmidt said: ‘By trying to set itself free, the Atta ant would then step in yet another hole where the same process was repeated, until the legs and antennae of the Atta were all fixed and the intruder was spread-eagled on the carton nest.
‘[The trap] is quite unique and so far limited to the very specific lifestyle and ecological niche of these two arboreal ants.’
The tiny ants, which are just millimetres long, construct galleries and tunnels in the wood which they reinforce with fungus.
The ingenious method of hunting relies on team-work in advance and reaps rewards later down the line. The large prey would otherwise be unobtainable
The tiny ants, which are just millimetres long, construct galleries and tunnels in the wood which they reinforce with fungus
Dr Schmidt calls this structure a ‘carton nest’.
After capturing passing grasshoppers or leafcutter ants, A. brevis ants devour them on the spot.
Dr Dejean has also observed the behaviour in another species, Allomerus decemarticulatus, in French Guiana.
The full findings were published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
The strange nests, comparable to a medieval torture rack, enable the insects to capture prey much larger than themselves and rip them to shreds
Researchers discovered that A. brevis ants were employing a unique hunting technique, using teamwork and their inspired tree trunk contraption to ambush predators. This file photo shows a side view of the species
Experts first encountered the strange species of ants in Costa Rica’s Piedras Blancas National Park in 1999
HOW DO ANTS USE MATHS TO BUILD ‘LIVING BRIDGES’?
Several species of ant build ‘living bridges’ made of their own bodies to traverse small gaps.
Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology showed in 2015 that up to 20 per cent of a colony may be locked into bridges on a route at any time.
This is when an individual ant may run a ‘bridging’ algorithm.
An ant can tell how many times it has been stampeded by previous ants and use this to judge the width of the bridge.
When this hits a certain number, an ant – judging that too many members of the colony may now occupy bridges – may rejoin the march.
Several species of ant build ‘living bridges’ made of their bodies to traverse small gaps