Weaver Ants

Weaver ants otherwise refers to as green ants belongs to Oecophylla genus and they are eusocial insects being the family of formicidae in order of hymenoptera. Besides, weaver ants are naturally arboreal and are very popular for their special nest construction attitude. Here, workers assume the responsibility of building nest through the weaving of leaves together with the larval silk application. The colonies may be so huge that it comprise of over hundred nests across uncountable number of tree with about 500,000 workers. Similar to other species of ants, weaver ants feed on little insects and as well as enhance their ford with carbohydrate rich honey dew usually excreted by little insects (Hemiptera). The oecophylla workers display visible bimodal shape distribution with little or no coincidence between the shape of the minor and major workers.

The actual workers are measured about 8 to 10 millimeter long while the minor is almost 4mm long. Labor is apportioned according to the sizes of the workers. The major workers go in search to food, guard, and manage as well as extending the colony. On the other hand, the minor workers simply remain inside the nest to attend to the brood and nurse scale insects around the nests. Oecophylla weaver ants differ according to colors, as many are reddish, brownish or yellowish based on the specific species. Weaver ants are usually very common in Australia on bright green gaster. As a matter of fact, they are much localized while the workers harshly protect their domain against invaders. A lot of local farmers especially in South Eastern Asia use weaver ant being natural bio control agent to eliminate agricultural pest. Despite the fact that weaver ants cannot sting effectively, they are capable of inflicting unimaginable and unpleasant bites followed by spraying formic acid on the spot which produces serious ache.
Naturally, weaver ant colonies are originated by at least one mated queens (females). The queen lays egg clutch over a leaf. She then begins to guard and nurse the larvae till the metamorphosiezed into full grown workers. These workers immediately build nests made of leaf as well as assist rear fresh brood laid by the queen. The more the number of workers, the higher the number of nest being constructed the colony productivity and colony survival. This is not limited to food searching but also covers nest construction and protection of colony. Chemical and tactile communication signal is applicable to enhance the flow of information and modulations of workers attitude usually come to play in the process of worker to worker interaction.

The signals in question are essentially restricted to the food searching and colony protection. Ideally, effective forager doops pheromone trail which assist in persuading the rest of the workers to the newly discovered food origin. Besides, same pheromone trails are as well applied by the patrollers to engage the services of workers in readiness to counter the potential invaders. In addition, tactile communication signals including attention and body shaking to enhance actions in signal respondent. In display of their social culture as part of the recruitment process, one worker carries another worker in its jaw to another area where it is more needful.

In the process of building nest, undeniable co-operative attitude is also displayed. They must be well organized and discipline to bend down 4 different leaves bigger than a man’s head. Having satisfied with its direction, they quickly clue them together. For the weaver ants to successfully construct nest using leaves implies their ecological prowess. On the average, it takes less than one day to build a nest. Despite the fact that these weaver ant nests are usually solid, they go further to build more and more nest for expansion purpose.