Oh my God, guys!
I caught a new queen ant, and not just any queen!
This beauty is a trap-jaw queen ant.
Look at those jaws.
They are just crazy massive and super dangerous.
I've been stung and bitten by one of these girls and it was one of the most painful bites
I have ever received from an insect.
Trap jaw ants get their name from the way in which little tiny hairs trigger their massive
and menacing jaws to snap shut with blinding power and speed!
Today we put these jaws to the test and meet this brand new queen trap-jaw ant and welcome
her to the AC Family.
Plus, we take a look at some other super menacing ant species that exist in the tropical country
I currently live in, and for those of you asking me to pit two species of ants together
so they could fight and war, well you're in for a treat because today we're going to watch
as two monster ant species come together.
AC Fam, grab your magnifying glasses and put on your hiking boots as we take a look at
some monster ants here in the Southeast Asian tropics, and I also explain how I got here
all the way from Canada, in this super cool episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please subscribe to my channel, and hit the bell icon, too.
Thank you and welcome to the AC Family, and I don't know why I'm whispering.
Enjoy the video.
If you're an ant keeper there is this sort of inexplicable joy that one feels when you
find a new queen ant.
Perhaps some of you look forward to this feeling this coming Spring, or if you're in the Southern
Hemisphere or the tropics you're probably experiencing this now.
The thrill of finding a large ant, identifying that my goodness it's a queen in nuptial flight,
then capturing her to raise your own colony is something comparable to a partnership I
liken to the movie Avatar.
You sort of form this deep connection with this queen, a bond which if you're looking
at Avatar the movie is like your tsaheylu to your Mountain banshee or your Ikran.
You and the ant are two species which share the geographical land and come together to
form a partnership where if you techincally look at it, can be a mutualistically beneficial
relationship.
You provide for all the needs and care for the queen and her future babies, offering
them food, housing, protection, resources, and maintenance duties, while the queen provides
us a flourishing colony that brings us amazement, wonder, learning, and if you've watched this
channel for awhile some pretty amazing, deep insights.
So when I found this Odontomachus species queen ant, I freaked out.
I found her walking on a windowsill of my building, and quickly placed her into a bottle,
then test tubed her.
Take a look at her, isn't she amazing?
As mentioned earlier trap-jaw ants get their name from their mandibles.
Those straight mandibles are capable of opening 180 degrees.
These jaws are locked in place by an internal mechanism, and can snap shut on prey or objects
when sensory hairs on the inside of the mandibles are touched.
The mandibles are powerful and fast, and I mean super fast!
One study of Odontomachus ants recorded peak speeds of between 126–230 kilometres per
hour, that's 78–143 mph, with the jaws closing within just 130 microseconds, and the peak
force exerted was about 300 times the body weight of the ant.
Those are insane numbers.
That's about 18.6 tonnes of force if this queen were the size of a human, or like the
force of dropping about 12 SUVs down onto whatever it is the human-sized trap-jaw queen
might be biting.
Let's just be thankful she isn't that size.
These trap-jaw ants can also apprently use their jaws as a catapult to eject intruders
or fling themselves backwards to escape a threat.
Those are some amazing jaws if you ask me.
Now, let's put these jaws to the test.
I'm going to place this probe into the test tube and see how this queen reacts.
Ready guys?
Here we go.
Let's move the probe closer to her.
It's getting closer.
Let's repositon here.
She hasn't noticed us yet, but... oh, now she smells the probe.
Here we go.
She's checking it out.
Here she goes - contact.
Woah did you see that?
Well, of course you didn't actually see it, it was lighting fast.
Check out this slowed down replay.
Woah!
It was so fast our cameras couldn't even pick it up.
I just felt and heard a small tiny tick but I am sure it was powerful.
Just amazing.
This queen is special because trap-jaw ants are a species that is semi-claustral.
So remember a few videos back when I explained ant reproduction and how queen ants seal themselves
off and don't eat during the founding stage as they give rise to their first set of workers.
Well, some species actually do hunt and forage as they raise their first set of workers.
Kind of like how some birds do.
Trap-jaw ant queens leave the nest, find food, then return to the nest to feed their young.
So this trap-jaw queen ant being semi-claustral and does need to hunt while raising her first
set of workers.
Now, I don't know if she has mated or not, and she still has her wings, which doesn't
necessarily mean that she hasn't mated, but perhaps she might be hungry, so let's see
if she will eat this baby cockroach nymph.
I had heard that trap-jaw ants love this species of feeder cockroach known in the pet trade
as "lats" or "red runners".
So here we go guys!
Let's see if she will eat this baby cockroach.
It's getting closer.
The cockroach has been pre-killed but due to insect nerves, it's still able to move
and it creeps closer and closer to our queen.
It's so close!
Is she going to bite it?
Suddenly the cockroach falls on its back exposing its soft underside.
This is it, guys.
What?
What a surprise!
She doesn't want to have anything to do with the food.
Now this species is a challenge to get started into a full colony from just a single caught
queen ant because of how finicky their diet is.
You see trap-jaw ants also happen to be very specific feeders and prefer very specific
terrestrial insects and other invertebrates, and looks like this time, she's not interested
in our cockroach.
Look at her as she approaches the cockroach so cautiously when he jaws can easily crush
that cockroach in one swift blow.
She really seems like a gentle giant, doesn't she?
She's not a monster ant at all.
So, I gotta get that roach outta there.
Now how on Earth am I going to do that?
Ummm ok I'm just going to try to fish it out here.
Ok, done.
She checks the area just to make sure the cockroach is gone, everything seems clear,
and look at her now just taking her place and settling back in.
She's so cute, right guys?
If we successfully raise a colony from her, what should we name the colony?
Let me know in the comments section.
OK, so what am I going to do with this new queen ant now?
Well because she is semi-claustral, her setup will be a little different from if she were
just a normal queen ant.
I'll need the help of this neat piece of ant equipment.
It's called an AC Test Tube Portal.
Basically it allows you to connect up to 4 test tube setups or tubing, and creates a
mini space where you can feed semi-claustral queens, create a small chamber in a tubing
network, make it easier for queen ants and small colonies to move out of moldy test tube
setups and into new test tube setups, and can be used for a bunch of other stuff, too.
The applications of this equipment for ant keepers are actually quite endless.
It even has a little trap door to drop food in easier.
So what I'm going to do is simply attach this Trap-jaw queen ant's test tube to this test
tube portal and then place this test tube portal in a dark spot somewhere where she
can be at peace, and if she's mated, we should soon have eggs.
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on her.
Now another thing that makes the trap-jaw queen special is that unlike the Fire Nation,
our Fire Ants, which is a species originating in South America, our Black Crazy Ants, which
scientists suspect originated in India, and our Yellow Crazy Ants which scientists suspect
came from West Africa, these trap-jaw ant are in fact a native ant, a species that is
originally from here in the Philippines.
You see, the Fire Nation, our Black Crazy Ants, and our Yellow Crazy Ant colonies, though
we love them so much, are all considered "tramp species" essentially ants that have successfully
colonized many countries, but have originated from another country in the world.
They migrated here through human activites like trasnport of plants, goods, etc, and
their ability to conquer the land and overpower native ants helped them establish themselves
here many years ago.
They're essentially naturalized migrants or invasive ants.
Alright guys, so here's alittle something.
Speaking of international migrations, so many of you guys have been asking why this channel
is called AntsCanada when I am in fact living the Philippines, so here's the story.
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada to two Filipino-migrant parents, and started
this ant channel in 2009 in Canada with Canadian ants.
Now, I know this sounds totally, totally random guys, but I moved to the Philippines in 2011
to become an actor, comedian, and singer.
I actually live 3 separate lives as a youtuber running not one, not two, but three channels,
which I rarely talk about in each channel and I've been trying to do my best to keep
my channels and content separate, just because the 3 channels are so vastly different, and
the audiences are therefore also different, but for those of you who might be interested
I've placed links in the description box to my other channels, but just a warning, you
may be like "Whhhaat da?!"
So that explains why this channel is called AntsCanada while most of it is filmed in the
Philippines, and also explains why a lot of times you guys might happen to see one of
my product endorsement commercials airing before watching these ant videos.
Alright, but back to the ants.
Relocating here to the Philippines turned out to be pure serendipity because I was shocked
to discover that the Philippines just so happens to be one of the hottest of the biodiversity
hotspots in the entire world for endemic flora and fauna, especially for the mighty ants
that live here!
I thought I had to close my ant channel when I moved from Canada but I guess not.
About 30% of all currently known ant genera have been recorded in the Philippines.
New species are being discovered all the time.
Check out this map from Antmaps.org.
This map is colour coded and all the purple areas have the highest concentration of ant
species that are endemic and the Philippines is one of those purple countries.
If you ant lovers out there have a chance to visit a tropical country, I really hope
you can stop by the Philippines because it really is an ant haven.
OK it's time to explore the ants.
Just this week, I was able to travel just beyond the borders of the city to Los Banos,
Laguna, to the lush countryside to film these amazing ant species for you guys.
Are you ready to check them out?
OK here we go.
So these brownish-reddish ants all marching in a line like this, might seem like your
every day brownish-reddish ants, until you see one of these.
That is a major.
This species is called Carebara diversa, one of the most impressive polymorphic ants ever.
They've got really tiny minors, and huge supermajors, and when I say huge, these supermajors are
massive, with heads as big as a centimeter large or larger.
They're also known as Marauder ants.
Very famous in the ant world, and check out what they do that's really cool.
The supermajors give piggyback rides to the minors, like this here, and... oh, where is
she going?
It seems like our cameras are scaring her, and she's running off the beated path, and
where is she going now?
I feel bad I feel like we just disorientated her.
Oh, looks like where ever she was going doesn't matter now.
She's heading back the other way.
Take a look at this beauty, guys.
This is a Diacamma species.
Huge, huge ants, and they sting.
This ant species is pretty cool because they are sort of queen-less.
Among the workers they elect a sort of dominant worker which takes the place as the egg-laying
queen and who's allowed to mate.
Males from other colonies are allowed into the nest where they mate with this one queen,
also known as a gamergate.
They're very aggressive and hunt singly.
Take a look at this menacing trap-jaw ant.
This is Odontomachus infandus.
Look at that head and those chompers.
I don't want to feel what it feels like being bitten by that, so I'm just going to keep
my distance.
Thank God it's cleaning itself right now because these ants are quick and so hard to film using
this macro camera.
Sorry guys for my noob filming for all of these ants.
Now although this trap-jaw ant looks scary, it seems that by far, the dominant ants in
this entire area are the Asian Weaver ants.
I found a trail of Asian Weaver ants and they were carrying all sorts of insects that they
had killed: ants, termites, and it seemed I was just on time to catch an epic ant battle
between Weaver ants and a trap-jaw ant.
Woah look at the trap-jaw ant trying to sting the Weaver Ants, and the Weaver Ants are ruthless
and brave.
Look at how this worker is trying to bite the stinger, while another is trying to bite
the jaws!
Wow!
The trap-jaw ant opens its mandibles wide, ready to snap shut on a weaver ant at any
moment, but it seems like today, the weaver ants will win this battle.
Isn't that crazy AC fam?
Unreal that we got to capture that on film.
So guys, I managed to get a lot of footage of these ants that you've seen here, as well
as other ants not shown in this video, so I've created a hidden video for you guys here,
if you want to check out the ants that I filmed on this day, and I just wanna say a special
thanks to my friend David General, an ant taxonomist from this area who helped me ID
these ants.
Now these beautiful and awesome native ant species have lived here for millions of years,
and it was really cool to be able to admire them.
But you know what, can I be honest with you guys, as I was observing these ants, I realized
that thought these tropical ants are really cool and it seems like these ants are really
intense all the time, a part of me does miss the ants that I grew up with in Canada, our
familiar North American ants.
I miss the tiny Lasius ant hills and huge Tetramorium ant wars by the sidewalks.
I really miss running into Formica ant hills in the field and their panicky workers in
the sun, and man do I really miss those huge and impressive carpenter ants, but I guess,
as the saying goes, "The grass is always greener on the other side."
I suppose the most we can do is enjoy what we have right, when we have it, and really
take the time to look closer and admire the beauty that surrounds us, in all shapes and
forms, even in the things most people never notice like ants.
Thanks for watching this video and until next week, AC Fam, it's ant love forever.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video it really, really means a lot to me.
Hope you guys can subscribe and join the AC Family, and let's discover just how amazing
ants are.
Also, don't forget to follow us on Facebook where we often do livestreams and announcements,
and we're currently having a fun contest where we're giving away our free ant t-shirts which
just debuted at the shop.
So join us!
Link to our Facebook page is in the description box.
Alright guys, and we're going to top this video off with the AC Question of the week.
Last week we asked, name one of the new territories we added to the Fire Nation.
Congratulations to David Rafael who correctly answered the Hydrocombs.
We also accepted the Tropic of Pyro and the Fire Jungle, and now for this week's Question
of the Week we ask, what is the name of the species featured in this video that give piggyback
rides to fellow smaller sisters.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win our brand new Test Tube
Portal v2, which you saw earlier in this video, and remember guys we've got an awesome Christmas
sale and promo that's happening all month, so visit us at AntsCanada.com.
It's Ant Love Forever.