Ants Set Traps to Catch Prey
Posted on April 21, 2005
New Scientist reports that entomologists have discovered a new tactic used by Amazonian ants to catch prey. The ants build a platform that has little hidey holes in it. Then the ants hide under the platform and launch out from the holes to attack when a grasshopper or caterpillar walks over it. The complicated behavior has never before been observed in ants. New Scientist describes the elaborate trap:
The traps are woven together using hairs stripped from the ants' host plant and reinforced with fungus, producing a platform with pitted holes. "The ants are always hiding just under the holes, waiting with their mandibles open. When an insect arrives they immediately grab the legs and antennae," says Orivel. This pulling immobilises the victim, stretching it out as though being tortured on a mediaeval rack.Worker ants then clamber over their helpless prey, biting and stinging until the victim is paralysed or dead. The carcass is then chopped into small pieces while still on the rack or, more likely, carried back to the leaf pouch to be devoured.
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