ARMY ANTS OF THE AMAZON

This short presentation was created to provide
educators and students information to enhance
learning about this subject.

Linda Gorman Hayes
ANTS, ALTHOUGH ADMIRABLE, ARE
AWFULLY AGGRAVATING
BY,
WALTER R. BROOKS
The busy ant works hard all day
And never stops to rest or play.
He carries things ten times his size,
And never grumbles, whines or cries.
And even climbing flower stalks,
He always runs, he never walks.
He loves his work, he never tires,
And never puffs, pants or perspires.
Yet though I praise his boundless vim
I am not really fond of him.
JUST WHERE DID THESE FIRE ANTS COME FROM?

Red fire ants came from a place called the
Amazon Rain Forest. They traveled on a boat
that brought trees from Brazil in South America
to the United States.
NORTH CAROLINA FIRE ANT
ipminc.wordpress.com
MAP OF THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST
WHAT IS THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST?


The Amazon Rain Forest is an area of land that has many
tall trees, a warm climate, and lots of rain. It is located in
South America. The Amazon Rain Forest is the largest rain
forest in the world.
The forest is made up of four layers:
The emergent layer
The canopy
The understory
The forest floor
THE AMAZON ARMY ANT
LIFE CYCLE OF AN ANT

It takes about 8 -12 weeks for an ant to hatch
from its egg
pupa
Adult
larva
eggs
Imported Red Fire Ants
Amazon Army Ants
Traveled from South America by Live in the Amazon Rain Forest
boat and now live in the
in South America
southern United States
Workers live about 1- 1 ½
months
Life span 3 – 13 months
Create mounds of nests in the
ground and set up their home
anywhere
Do not make permanent nests,
but build nests by attaching
their bodies together
Very aggressive hunters
Attack in large numbers and
swarm their prey
Eat leaves, stems, roots, spiders, Eat just about anything
bees, birds, and mice
Eat other insects that destroys
crops
Eat what is dead or dying on the
forest floor
Bite and sting
Bite and sting
FACTS ABOUT THE ARMY ANT
Since the army ant is very aggressive, they are at
the top of the insect food chain- that means there
aren’t too many other insects that eat them.
 Even though they are blind, they communicate
by touch, sound and scent.
 They clean the forest floor of the dead and rotten
matter.

BOTH
ANT GROUPS HAVE JOBS
Red Fire Ant
Amazon Army Ant
Queen – lays the eggs
Queen – lays the eggs
Young workers – take care of the
brood
Soldiers – protects the colony
Middle age – clean and protect
the colony
Eldest – forage for food
Workers – forages for food and
feeds the soldiers
REFERENCES




Slide 2 – Ant poem by Walter R. Brooks
http://www.oocities.org/heartland/1133/animalpoems/bugspoems.ht
ml
Slide 3 – fire ant picture:
http://web.biosci.utexas.edu/fireant/index.html
Slide 4 – North Carolina fire ant
http://ipminc.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ant1.jpg
Slide 5 – South America and the Amazon Rain Forest Image
http://enviro-map.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/amazon_forest.jpg
Slides 7 & 10 – Amazon Army Ant
http://www.bugaboopest.com/army%20ant.png
Glosopedia http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=7
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/08/army-ants/moffett-text