Eciton hamatum workers return from an afternoon raid bearing mouthfuls of pilfered ant brood (Ecuador)
Meet Eciton hamatum.
This is a delightfully orange-colored army ant from Neotropical rain forests, big and charismatic, like the iconic E. burchellii. But- and here’s a secret trick of the wiley nature photographer- it is a much friendlier insect. If you’ve got an assignment to shoot army ants and your editor neglects to specify the species, I’d hold out for these guys. You won’t get swarmed over, gored, bitten, stung up, or otherwise assaulted anywhere near the amount you suffer by approaching the vicious E. burchellii.
This raiding party has gotten into a bee nest, as evidenced by the large bee pupa at right. Note that it takes two ants to carry such a heavy burden.
Eciton hamatum is a more typical army ant in its dietary preferences. It targets social insects, especially bees, wasps, and ants.
A media worker carries a captured male ant
Since E. hamatum‘s prey inhabits discrete nests the food landscape for this species is mostly empty, punctuated by isolated spots of great bounty. Thus, the raid strategy is correspondingly different from that of the generalist E. burchellii.
decpiction of an Eciton hamatum column raid, from Rettenmeyer (1963)
Raid fronts concentrate workers into a number of exploratory columns, each with enough ants to bring immediate pressure onto any prey colony they encounter. These dense columns are important because prey aren’t naive. When facing army ants, targeted colonies evacuate quickly!
From above, a raid looks like the figure at left. Tendrils fan out from a central trail over the forest floor. Columns stay tight enough that when an ant or wasp nest is located enough workers are around to effectively exploit the discovery. Unproductive tendrils are abandoned, and their raiding parties rejoin the central trail.
As for E. burchellii, raids start from the bivouac in the morning and spread outward for tens to hundreds of meters during the day. The back end of the raids consolidate into a smaller number of support and food transport trails.
An ant nest in the leaf litter (indicated by piles of excavated soil) is discovered by a raiding party.
The soldier caste of Eciton hamatum is similar to that of E. burchellii, bearing the same defensive tusks. Eciton hamatum soldiers, though, have a much larger set of horns along the back corners of the head. These protrusions presumably protect the ant’s vulnerable neck in fights with other ants, and this species certainly spends a great deal more time fighting other ants than does E. burchellii.
Eciton hamatum soldier
On a personal note, I found photographing this species to be great fun. Most of my Eciton encounters over the years have been with E. burchellii or E. vagans. In comparison, E. hamatum is charming. Their physique is a bit more pudgy, they are an unusual shade of orange, and they are much less aggressive. The effect is almost comical.
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Entomoblog and Delphine., Alex Wild. Alex Wild said: Eciton hamatum, orange scourge of the social insects http://j.mp/hF6CzI [...]
I like the pleasing composition of that first photo which I’m sure is no accident. Nice photos all around. I have to admit, I usually don’t even try to take photos of army ants I encounter. I’m almost always disappointed with my efforts.
Very awesome photos, especially that first one. Do I have to keep saying this?
Thanks guys! That top photo took about 60 exposures- not too bad. Once I got the lighting, the angle, and the camera settings tweaked it was just a matter of racking up enough images until I captured one I liked. I ended up with about 10 good images, but this one, with a lone worker in focus and the single file behind, is the real stand-out from the session.
The lighting is the same as described here.
The most difficult part was pacing the 80 meters up and down the raid column through dense 2nd growth forest and countless spider webs until I found the trail crossing just the right leaf for this project.
[...] could be Eciton hamatum, based on Alex Wild’s post today on that species. They are definitely orange, and I don’t recall being bitten or stung. [...]
[...] attention of most Neotropical army ant observers is focused on just two common species, Eciton hamatum and Eciton burchellii. But the genus contains several rarer species, and one of my favorites is the [...]
[...] we noted previously, Eciton hamatum army ants feed on the brood of other social [...]
[...] species of Eciton are predators of other ant species. Dolichoderus attelaboides is a sizable ant living in large colonies- a great source of protein for [...]
[...] out more of Alex Wild’s fantastic photographs of Army Ants from around the world: Link | Gallery – Thanks [...]
nice job; check your “freak-out!” link though; *it needs a http:// rather that trying to access the webpage “file:///p://myrmecos.net/2010/09/30/harvester-ants-totally-freak-out-over-army-ants/” on my own ‘puter.
entemologist as a kid (4-H), I am sad to have found out that 4-H in the USA is mainly livestock – was lucky to have had the leaders i did when young.