Paraponera clavata is an ant species, commonly known as ant bullet , named for its very strong sting. It inhabits damp lowland rainforests of Nicaragua and extreme eastern Honduras and south to Paraguay.
Video Paraponera clavata
Etimologi
The specific nickname of the ant, clavata , comes from clavate , where it means" club shaped ". The generic name, Paraponera , translates to "near- Ponera ". Because of its fame, ants have several local names America, Spain and Portugal in various geographical areas. Probably the best known name is the Venezuelan language htiga veinticuatro ("24 ants" or "ants 24 hours"), referring on a day of pain following a sting; it can also refer to the time it takes to kill humans. In Brazil, the Portuguese names given by locals include formiga cabo verde , formigÃÆ' Â £ o or formigÃÆ' Â £ o-preto (big black ant), and the original American-derived name is tocandera , tocandira and tocanquibira . These names are from Tupi-Guarani tuca-ndy , which translates to "deeply wounded". Other names in question are chacha , cumanagata , munuri , siÃÆ'¡mÃÆ' Â ± a , yolosa , and viente cuatro hora hormiga . In Costa Rica, P. clavata is known as bala , meaning "bullet". P. clavata also has some common names; this is best known as bullet ants because of the extreme pain caused after the sting, similar to the shot. Other names are hunting ants and lower con ants. Maps Paraponera clavata
Taxonomy
Paraponera clavata was first described by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775, who named it Formica clavata in his book > Systema entomologiae , based on a worker he collected. Fabricius incorrectly incorporates this type of locality as an Indian, although the ants are found only in Central and South America. In 1804, P. clavata was transferred to the genera Ponera by the French zoologist Pierre Andrà ©  © Latreille. The genus of Paraponera was founded by the English entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858, and P. clavata was defined as a species species by monotypy (the taxonomic group condition has only one taxon explained). In his book, Smith will equate some taxa under Paraponera clavata , including Formica armata , Formica spininoda , Ponera tarsalis and Ponera clavata Paraponera to Ectatommini. It was treated as a valid tribe in 1994, but in 2003, British mamm artists increased the tribal rank to subfamily level as Paraponerinae, becoming part of the Poneromorph subfamilies.
Under this classification, bullet ants are members of the Paraponera genus within the Paraponerini, Paraponerinae subfamily. It is a member of the family of Formicidae, which belongs to the order of Hymenoptera, It is the only member of the genus and its own tribe until the extinct Paraponera dieteri described in 1994 by entomolog Cesare Baroni Urbani. Ants, depicted from Dominican amber, existed during the early Miocene 15 to 45 million years ago. P. dieteri can be distinguished from P. clavata P. dieteri shows that the genus as a whole shows a slow rate of evolution.
P. clavata is the only species living in its subfamily. Although P. dieteri was the first extinct relative P. clavata in the 1980s.. The fossils, originating from the Miocene, were found embedded in Dominican Amber from Hispaniola; at the time of discovery, ants are the largest fossils of its kind. This shows characteristics similar to P. clavata , although it is much smaller. This fossil also has biogeographic interests. Such as P. clavata is not found in the Great Antilles, but in Central and South America, it shows that humid tropical forests cover the island during the Tertiary period. This is supported by the fact that P. clavata is a forest ant feeding on the ground and climbing into bushes and trees.
Description
Worker ants measure between 18-30 mm (0.7-1.2 inches) and are similar to the yellowish-black wasps. Paraponera is a predator, and like all primitive poneromorphs, does not display polymorphism in the worker caste; queen ant is no bigger than the workers.
Distribution and habitat
Paraponera is spread throughout Central and South America, commonly found in wet neotropic ecozone. The ants are found in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica from the north, and in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil from the south. Colonies are found in the lowlands, at altitudes ranging from sea level to 750 m (2,460 ft). However, specimens have been collected at an altitude of 1,500 m (4,920 ft) at Parque La Amistad.
The colony consists of several hundred individuals and is usually located at the base of the tree. Workers search for food in the immediate vicinity directly over the nest for small arthropods and nectar, often as far as the upper canopy; a bit of foraging takes place on the forest floor. Nectar, carried between the lower jaw, is the most common food brought back to the nest by the collector. Two studies in Costa Rica and in Barro Colorado Island (BCI) found about four bullet ant nests per hectare of forest. In BCI, the nest is found under 70 tree species, six species of bushes, two liana species, and one species of palm. The most common nest under the canopy of Faramea occidentalis and Trichilia tuberculata , but these trees are also the most abundant in the forest. The nest is present more often than estimated under the abundance of trees under Alseis blackiana , Tabernaemontana arborea , Virola sebifera , Guarea guidonia , and Oenocarpus mapora . A large number of nest plants show little active selection of nest sites by ant bullets. However, small shrubs are underutilized, perhaps because they do not provide access to the forest canopy. The study of BCI concludes that trees with a support and extracloral nectari can be selected by ant bullets.
Enemy
This ant is a predator of Greta bib , glasswing butterfly. This butterfly tries to combat P. clavata Parasites
Flying small phorid (1.5 to 2.0 mm), Apocephalus paraponerae , is a wounded workers parasite P. clavata , where the supply is constant because of the frequent aggressive encounter between neighboring colonies, resulting in disabled workers. These flies are capable of parasites in healthy ants if ants are artificially under control, but healthy ants are agile and capable of driving them away. Male and female flies are attracted by the scent of injured ants; females lay eggs, also feed, and males feed and may mate with females. Flies are attracted to the crushed ants in two to three minutes and 10 flies or more may be attracted to each ant. Each ant can store 20 larvae of flies. Carl Rettenmeyer observes that P. clavata actively tries to attack paraponerae as they approach the entrance to their nest.
Relationships with humans
Sting
The pain caused by insect stings is reported to be larger than other hymenopteran, and is classified as the most painful according to the Schmidt sting index index, rated "4", above the tawula hawk bee, and according to some victims, the same as being shot, then the name of the insect. It is described as causing "a wave of burning, throbbing, all consuming pain that continues for up to 24 hours". Poneratoxin, a crippling neurotoxic peptide isolated from toxins, affects sodium ion channels depending on the voltage and inhibits synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. This is being investigated for possible medical applications.
Rite Initiation
The SaterÃÆ'Â © -MawÃÆ'Â © the Brazilians used intentional bullet-prohibited bullets as part of their initiation rituals to become warriors. Ants are first made unconscious by soaking them in a natural sedative, and then hundreds are woven into gloves made of leaves (which resemble large oven gloves), stingers facing inwards. When the ant is aware, a boy slips his glove into his hand. The purpose of this initiation ceremony is to keep the gloves for a full 5 minutes. Once completed, the boy's hands and arms were paralyzed temporarily because of the ant poison, and he could shake uncontrollably for days. The only "protection" provided is a charcoal layer in hand, which should confuse ants and inhibit their stinging. However, to complete the initiation completely, boys have to go through 20 or so trials for several months or even years.
See also
- Myrmecia , often called the bull ant, also famous for its strong sting
- List of ant genera (alphabets)
References
Further reading
- Bequaert, J.C. (1926). Medical Report from Hamilton Rice 7th. Expedition to Amazon . Harvard University Press. pp.Ã, 250-253. Weber, N. A. (1939). "An ant sting, Paraponera clavata ". Science . 89 : 127-128. doi: 10.1126/science.89.2302.127-a. PMIDÃ, 17781198.
- Lattke, JE (2003) - Subfamily Ponerinae at IntroducciÃÆ'³n las Hormigas de la RÃÆ'Â © gion Neotropical - Von Humboldt Institute, Bogota, Colombia.
- Breed, M. D.; Bennett, B. (1985). "Mass recruitment to nectar sources at Paraponera clavata Insectes Sociaux . 32 (2): 198. doi: 10.1007/BF02224233.
Jandt, Jennifer; Larson, Hannah; Tellez, Peter; McGlynn, Terrence (December 2013). "To drink or grasp? How do ants bullets (Paraponera clavata) distinguish between sugar and protein in the fluid". Naturwissenschaften . 100 (12): 1109. doi: 10.1007/s00114-013-1109-3. PMID 24193251 . Earned May 1 2015 .
External links
- A short article about Paraponera clavata
- Short article on bullets and poneratoxin ants
- tropical giant bullet ants, Paraponera clavata , natural history and management of prisoners, article by image
- YouTube videos of ritual initiation
- Paraponera clavata di AntWeb
- Data for specimens collected at Grace a Dios, Honduras, the northernmost level of its range.
- "STUNG by ANT BULLET!"
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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