Dorylus
Dorylus, also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swahili, and is one of numerous similar words from regional Bantu languages used by indigenous peoples to describe various species of these ants. Unlike the New World members of the former subfamily Ecitoninae (now Dorylinae), members of this genus form temporary subterranean bivouacs in underground cavities which they excavate and inhabit - either for a few da
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyFormicidae
Workers small or of medium size, without eyes or ocelli, highly polymorphic, constituting a series of forms which may be grouped as maximae, or soldiers, mediae and minimae. In the maxima the head is very large and usually broader in front than behind, the mandibles are long and narrow, with a small number of teeth on the inner border, the clypeus is very short and not marked off from the remainder of the head by sutures. Frontal carinae very short, erect, close together, not concealing the insertions of the antennae. Antennae short, inserted very near the mouth, 9- to 12- jointed, according to the species. Mediae smaller, with much smaller and shorter head, but the latter not narrowed in front; anterior border of clypeus more or less projecting in the middle over the mouth. Antennae as in the maxima. Minima very small, with the head narrowed anteriorly and the anterior border of the clypeus strongly projecting in the middle. Number of antennal joints reduced, seven being the minimum. Promesonotal suture distinct in all three forms of worker; mesoepinotal suture obsolete. Epinotum always unarmed. Petiole nodiform; postpetiole narrowed anteriorly, not or only indistinctly separated
via GBIF
Wikidata facts
Article
5 sectionsContents
- Life cycle
- Species
- See also
- References
- External links
Dorylus, also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swahili, and is one of numerous similar words from regional Bantu languages used by indigenous peoples to describe various species of these ants. Unlike the New World members of the former subfamily Ecitoninae (now Dorylinae), members of this genus form temporary subterranean bivouacs in underground cavities which they excavate and inhabit - either for a few days or up to three months. Also, unlike some New World army ants, driver ants are not specialized predators of other species of ant, instead being more generalistic with a diet consisting of a diversity of arthropods. Their colonies are enormous compared to other ant species, and can contain over 20 million individuals. As with their American counterparts, workers exhibit caste polymorphism with the soldiers having particularly large heads that power their scissor-like mandibles. They are capable of stinging, but very rarely do so, relying instead on their powerful shearing jaws. A large part of their diet consists of earthworms. Driver ant queens are the largest living ants known, with the largest measuring between 40 - 63 millimeters (1.5 - 2.4 inches) in total body length depending on their physiological condition.
==Life cycle== thumb|left|upright|Some soldier safari ants make tunnels to provide a safe route for the workers. Seasonally, when food supplies become short, they leave the hill and form marching columns of up to 20,000,000 ants, which constitute a considerable threat to humans, though they can be easily avoided as a column can only travel about 20 meters in an hour. It is for those unable to move, or when the columns pass through homes, that there is the greatest risk. The presence of a mobile column of safari ants is, conversely, beneficial to certain human communities, such as the Maasai. They perform a pest prevention service in farming communities, consuming the majority of other crop-pests, from insects to large rats. For example, driver ants prey on larvae of the African sugarcane borer, a pest moth in sub-Saharan Africa.