Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Red Driver Ant (Male)

Dorylus helvolus

Notes:

Thank you Johan

1 Species ID Suggestions

Red Driver Ant (Male)
Dorylus helvolus Dorylus


Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

Johan Heyns
Johan Heyns 11 years ago

Male driver ants, sometimes known as "sausage flies" (a term also applied to males of New World ecitonines) due to their bloated, sausage-like abdomens, are the largest known ants, and were originally believed to be members of a different species. Males leave the colony soon after hatching, but are drawn to the scent trail left by a column of siafu once it reaches sexual maturity. When a colony of driver ants encounters a male, they tear its wings off and carry it back to the nest to be mated with a virgin queen. As with all ants, the males die shortly afterward.[2]
Such is the strength of the ant's jaws that in East Africa they are used as natural, emergency sutures. Various East African indigenous tribal peoples (e.g. Maasai moran), when suffering from a gash in the bush, will use the soldiers to stitch the wound by getting the ants to bite on both sides of the gash, then breaking off the body. This use of ants as makeshift surgical staples creates a seal that can hold for days at a time, and the procedure can be repeated if necessary, allowing natural healing to commence.[4][5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorylus

ForestDragon
ForestDragon 11 years ago

Very interesting insect! It looks like some type of wasp to me. It could be a species of Horntail, Family Siricidae. I am not absolutely sure.

Mookgopong Local Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa

Spotted on Jan 20, 2013
Submitted on Jan 20, 2013

Related Spottings

Sausage fly Fire ant - Worker Driver ants Genus Dorylus 烈蟻屬 (狩獵蟻屬)

Nearby Spottings

Spider Spider Five roses Spider
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team