North American army ant (SciiFii)

The North American army ant (Eciton texum) is a species of New World army ant in the genus Eciton, most closely related to the Eciton army ant (Eciton burchellii), that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the tropical, subtropical, and temperate rainforests, wetlands, forests, and open woodlands across North America and Central America to help boost biodiversity. This species displays a high degree of worker polymorphism. Sterile workers are of four discrete size-castes: minors, medias, porters (sub-majors), and soldiers (majors). Soldiers have much larger heads and specialized mandibles for defense. In lieu of underground excavated nests, colonies of North American army ants form temporary living nests known as bivouacs, which are composed of hanging live worker bodies and which can be disassembled and relocated during colony emigrations. North American army colonies cycle between stationary phases and nomadic phases when the colony emigrates nightly. These alternating phases of emigration frequency are governed by coinciding brood developmental stages. Group foraging efforts known as "raids" are maintained by the use of pheromones, can be 200 metres (660 feet) long, and employ up to 200,000 ants. Workers are also adept at making living structures out of their own bodies to improve efficiency of moving as a group across the forest floor while foraging or emigrating. Workers can fill "potholes" in the foraging trail with their own bodies, and can also form temporary living bridges. Like other army ants, North American army ants are predatory and feed on a wide range of other insects (including other ants), spiders, scorpions, small frogs, small lizards, and small mammals, however, they do not prey on animals the size of or larger than brown rats. Colonies may be quite large, accommodating as many as 100,000 to 600,000 adult individuals. Each colony consists of a single queen, a brood of developing young, and many adult workers. The adult workers make up the majority of the population. There are four distinct physical worker castes. The queen usually copulates with 10–20 males, which leads to a colony with a large number of worker patrilines, which are full-sibling families with the same father and mother. When a colony's size reaches a maximum, it can result in a split in the colony, with the old queen heading one resultant swarm and a daughter heading the other. The conservation status of the North American army ant is Least Concern due to successful conservation efforts, the North American army ant's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.
Category:Animals
Category:Species
Category:SciiFii