Hi guys, my name’s Jordan, and in this “ant room tour” we’re looking at some new additions
to our ever-growing collection of ants!
They are the incredibly unique, and highly specialised, Trap Jaw Ants…
Housed within this founding nest, we have a colony of Trap-jaws, of the genus “Odontomachus”.
Sent to us by one of our viewers over in Western Australia.
The colony's only in it’s early stages, with just 3 workers present.
All the offspring of their mother, and queen.
As you can see, she looks quite similar to her children.
You can tell her apart by her slightly larger frame.
And if you look closely, you can see some distinctive marks on either side of her thorax.
This is where her wings were once attached, wings which she used for nuptial flights.
Often, once queens begin founding their colony, they shed these wings, like this one has,
leaving behind a couple of small, dimply scars.
These guys are quite large ants.
Measuring in at around 15-20mm in length.
But, their size isn’t really what they’re known for.
As their common name of “Trap-jaw Ant” suggests, they’re renowned for their highly
sophisticated, and deadly mandibles.
To showcase this, I’m placing a small cricket into their foraging arena, one of our new
‘Ants Australia’ outworlds.
The ants sense the cricket’s presence almost immediately.
Opening up their mandibles wide in response.
They fix them into position at around 180 degrees, poised to strike.
A couple of the workers curiously make their way up to their nest entrance.
But, that’s about as far as they go.
These ants are primarily solitary hunters.
Often preferring to prey upon small insects, like termites.
So perhaps they are a little intimidated by the size of this cricket.
Eventually, however, the ants have no choice but to take it on, as the cricket ended up
coming to them, blundering into their nest.
Definitely not a good place to be.
Using their antennae, the trap-jaws carefully size up their unwanted guest and calculate
the best point to strike.
Then, once these sensory hairs lined along their mandibles touch their target.
It triggers the ants to snap their jaws shut. At blinding speeds.
You’re witnessing the fastest bite in the entire animal kingdom.
The action is so fast that it can generate forces exceeding 300 times the ants’ body weight.
That’s some serious power.
More than enough to encourage this cricket into a swift retreat.
With their prey now stunned and disorientated.
The ants have finally built up enough courage to go on the offensive…
Did you see that?
This ant just sliced straight through the cricket’s antenna!
The sheer speed at which they strike is truly astonishing.
Not only do trap jaws possess this lethal bite, but they also have a venomous stinger
which they can unsheathe from the tips of their abdomens.
Upon injection, it causes their victims to go into a state of paralysis.
Although, in the case with this cricket here, it appears their bites alone were sufficient
enough to subdue it.
So perhaps, they didn’t feel the need to expend valuable energy by following up with
a sting or two.
On top of Trap-jaw ants’ impressive offensive capabilities, they’re also well equipped
for defence.
But not in a way that you would expect.
They have a unique ability to fling themselves out of harm’s way.
They do this by turning their jaws into a catapult.
When faced with a perceived danger, they point their heads towards a solid surface and unleash
the power of their bite.
The generated force is then used to propels the ants backwards.
Just watch how fast the action is...
It’s almost like they’re teleporting themselves.
It definitely wouldn’t be easy to pursue something that can flee in a split second
like this.
Such a quirky, but highly successful strategy of survival.
In terms of diet, I’ve tried offering these ants sugars like this slice of pair here,
and also some small drops of raw honey, but they don’t seem to be very interested.
And rarely leave their nest to try it in the first place.
Generally, young ant colonies, with only a few workers present, tend to be much timider
when it comes to foraging.
With this colony, for example, I’ve never seen more than a single worker up exploring
their foraging area.
Perhaps it’s because they feel as though they have much more to lose.
If just one worker were to become lost, injured or die whilst in search of food, that’s
one third of their workers population just gone.
So to make the ants feel more at ease when it comes to feeding, I like to place food
right by their nest entrance.
Despite this, I’ve found these trap jaws still reject most foods that I provide,
unless they’re insects.
Crickets seem to be their favourite.
As soon as I place one near their entrance, they drag it straight down into the safety
of their nest.
Because their jaws are so large in respect to their bodies, they tend to get in the way
from time to time, inhibiting their movement.
So when consuming food, like this cricket, I find, they’ll often open up their jaws
so as to allow their mouthparts better access to it.
So, when a trap jaw opens its jaws, it’s not always a sign of aggression.
Now, onto our second colony of Trap-jaws.
These guys are of a different, but closely related genus, known as “Anochetus”.
A genus mostly found in tropical areas.
These guys here, were found up in Queensland, by our good mate Riley over at ‘Aussie Ants’.
Queensland is a hot-spot for ant diversity, and so, here they keep and document a vast variety
of species.
I highly recommend checking them out over on their YouTube channel and Instagram page.
I’ll leave links in the description below.
Currently the colony has several workers present and I’ve got them housed in a simple test
tube setup.
Which is just a water reservoir blocked off with some cotton wool.
Here you can see the queen of the colony.
Who’s distinctively darker than the workers, and like most queens, a little larger in size too.
Compared to the Odontomachus trap jaws, this species is super tiny, only around 3-4mm in length.
Side by side you can see the difference is quite substantial.
Because of their smaller size and slightly different jaw structure, they aren’t as
deadly as their sister genus.
They act more like ambush predators, rather than taking on their prey
head on.
Despite their small frames, I think they still look quite intimidating.
The way they move around their tube here, kind of resembles a pacing lion.
It almost looks as though they’re moving in slow motion...
Just like the Odontomachus, they’re also a little picky when it comes to food, preferring
small insects over anything else.
Here, I’m feeding them a tiny cockroach.
Which they seem to be quite fond of.
Watch as one of the workers methodically opens up her jaws to mauver herself into a better
position.
And here you can see one the workers carefully tending to her brood.
A tiny larva only about 1mm in length.
So, it’s clear, these trap jaws aren’t at all hindered by their menacing jaws, effectively
utilizing them for even the most delicate of tasks.
So what do you guys think of Trap-jaw Ants?
Pretty impressive right?
I find it remarkable how they’ve evolved such incredible predatory weaponry.
That's often utilized for a profoundly different function, flight.
This is a great example of evolutionary co-option, where a trait evolved for one purpose,
serves another.
So which ants do you guys want to see next time in our ant room tour?
Currently we’re keeping over 50 unique species!
Including Dracula ants, Strobe ants, Sugar Ants, Meat Ants, Spiny Ants, Bull Ants, Big-headed
Ants, Furnace Ants, and so much more!
So let us know in the comment section below.
Now onto our regular contest where we giveaway one of our specially built formicaria.
In last video’s contest we asked, “What is the most disturbing this you’ve discovered
about ants”.
For me, it’s when I first learned of parasites queens.
Queen ants which found their colonies by a brutal means.
After their nuptial flights, instead of digging out a little burrow, laying some eggs, and
starting their colony from scratch, like most queens do, what they do is infiltrate and
usurp existing colonies, by killing their queen, and disguising themselves as the colonies
true queen by rubbing the murdered queen’s pheromones all over their bodies.
That’s quite disturbing to me.
So the winner of the contest is…DWDear1985 who found their most disturbing ant discovery
to be about Dracula Ants, also known as Vampire Ants.
These guys get their name for a reason.
They have a rather creepy tendency to bite into their own developing larvae and consume
their haemoglobin.
Much like a vampire would.
So congratulations, you’ve just won yourselves one of our size 1 acrylic nests.
For our next videos contest, we’re going to be giving away one of our size 1 ytong nests.
To enter simply answer the following “How has your interest in ants impacted you as
a person?”
For example, you might have become more interested in exploring the natural world, or have managed
to meet new people and make new friends that you wouldn’t have otherwise met, or perhaps
it’s kept you distracted from some unpleasant experiences in your life.
A little bit of a personal question, I know.
But we’d love to hear your honest thoughts.
So post your answer in the comment section below.
We’ll pick out a single comment and announce them as the winner in our next video.
As always thanks for watching this video, and I hope you enjoyed.