Watch out! The rocket ant with jaws like a beartrap that is invading the US
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It can open its jaw 180 degrees, and fire it like a beartrap at the ground to launch itself into the air.
It also backs a venomous sting - and is invading the US.
The giant Trap-jaw ants are spreading across the US, researchers warned today.
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Most trap-jaw ants belong to the genus Odontomachus, named for their mandibles, or mouthparts, which are capable of opening 180 degrees.
THE GIANT TRAP-JAW ANT
There are four species of trap-jaw ants native to the United States.
Sorger and her co-authors were interested in the spread of an invasive and particularly aggressive species from South America called Odontomachus haematodus, which was first unofficially recorded in Alabama in 1956.
Measuring upto 9.5mm long, they are commonly called trap-jaw ants due to their elongate mandibles, which can be opened to 180°, then snapped rapidly together on prey.
These ants are amazing in their ability to control and time the mandibular movement.
When necessary, an ant can forcibly close the mandibles against a surface or other organism and actually propel itself away for up to several inches
The research was done by scientists at North Carolina State University, the Mississippi Entomological Museum, the University of California, Davis and Archbold Biological Station.
'The fact that some of these species are spreading is interesting, in part, because these giant ants have managed to expand their territory without anyone noticing,' says Magdalena Sorger of North Carolina State and co-author of a paper describing the ant species.
'We know very little about these ants, including how they interact with native ant species in the areas they're invading.'
There are four species of trap-jaw ants native to the United States.
Sorger and her co-authors were interested in the spread of an invasive and particularly aggressive species from South America called Odontomachus haematodus.
Native to South America, haematodus was first unofficially recorded in Alabama in 1956.
The Mandibles of a Malagasy Trap-jaw Ant - which are strong enough to throw the animal in the air
But the researchers found that the species has now spread across the Gulf Coast, at least as far east as Pensacola, Florida.
'Haemotodus is particularly interesting because it is larger and more aggressive than other trap-jaw ants in the United States,' Sorger says.
As recently as a few years ago, ruginodis was thought to be confined to the Orlando region, and points south.
'I found ruginodis in landscaped areas near buildings – outside a mall, outside my hotel – usually in the mulch underneath hedges,' Sorger says.
The giant trap-jaw ants are spreading across the US, researchers warned today.
But now Sorger has confirmed a record of ruginodis more than a hundred miles north of Orlando, in Gainesville.
'The species could have traveled even farther than Gainesville, but no one has looked for it.'
But not all of the trap-jaw species are on the move. Sorger also studies O. relictus, a species that is found only in endangered scrub habitat on central Florida's ancient sand ridges.
Sorger found that relictus ants on separate ridges displayed different behaviors and had distinct genetic profiles – indicating that they may have evolved into separate species.
'If these two O. relictus populations are, in fact, distinct species, it would make them the rarest ants in North America,' Sorger says.
'I'm hoping to resolve this question soon, via more genetic analyses.'
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