Aenictus Explained

Aenictus is a large army ant genus distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. It contains about 181 species, making it one of the larger ant genera of the world.[1]

Biology and distribution

The genus presently has 181 species, distributed through the East Mediterranean, Afrotropical, Oriental, Indo-Australian, and Australian regions.[1] [2] [3] Most of the species are tropical,[2] with terrestrial habitats, foraging in soil, leaf litter, most of the Southeast Asian species forage on the ground, and some on trees[4] and hunting other ant species and termites.

Most species of the genus are specialized predators of other ants, especially of immature stages.[5] [6] [7] Only some Asian species such as Aenictus gracilis, Aenictus laeviceps, Aenictus hodgsoni, and Aenictus paradentatus are known to hunt a variety of invertebrate prey, including ants, using a large number of workers in raids.[5] [4] [8] [9] Foraging raids undertaken by these ants occur both day and night, usually across the ground surface but occasionally also in trees. During raids, numerous workers attack ant nests in a small area, with several workers coordinating their efforts to carry large prey items back to the nest or bivouac.[10] Species of Aenictus are generally small, monomorphic and yellow to dark brown.[11]

Species

Notes and References

  1. Jaitrong . W. J. . Yamane . S. . 10.3897/zookeys.193.2768 . Review of the Southeast Asian species of the Aenictus javanus and Aenictus philippinensis species groups (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Aenictinae) . ZooKeys . 193 . 49–78 . 2012 . 22679379. 3361139 . free . 2012ZooK..193...49J .
  2. Brown WL Jr. (2000) Diversity of ants. In: Agosti et al. (Eds) Ants. standard methods for measuring and monitoring biodiversity. Biological diversity hand book series. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 280 pp.
  3. Aktaç N, Radchenko AG, Kiran K (2004) On the taxonomy of the west Palaearctic Aenictinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Annales Zoologici 54 (2): 361-364.
  4. Hirosawa . H. . Higashi . S. . Mohamed . M. . Food habits of Aenictus army ants and their effects on the ant community in a rain forest of Borneo . 10.1007/s000400050007 . Insectes Sociaux . 47 . 42–49 . 2000 . 8364202 .
  5. Gotwald WH (1995) Army ants: the Biology of Social Predation. Cornell University Press, New York, 320 pp.
  6. Rościszewski M, Maschwitz U (1994) Prey specialization of army ants of the genus Aenictus in Malaysia. Andrias 13: 179-187.
  7. 10.2307/2387819. 2387819. Behavioral Observations on African Army Ants of the Genus Aenictus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). 1976. Gotwald . W. H. . Biotropica. 8. 1. 59–65. 1976Biotr...8...59G.
  8. Shattuck SO (2008) Review of the ant genus Aenictus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Australia with notes on A. ceylonicus (Mayr). Zootaxa 1926: 1-19.
  9. Jaitrong W, Yamane Sk (2011) Synopsis of Aenictus species groups and revision of the A. currax and A. laeviceps groups in the eastern Oriental, Indo-Australian, and Australasian regions (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Aenictinae). Zootaxa 3128: 1-46.
  10. Jaitrong . W. J. . Yamane . S. . 10.3897/JHR.31.4274 . The Aenictus ceylonicus species group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Aenictinae) from Southeast Asia . Journal of Hymenoptera Research . 31 . 165–233 . 2013 . free .
  11. Sharaf . M. . Aldawood . A. . El-Hawagry . M. . 10.3897/zookeys.228.3559 . First record of the ant subfamily Aenictinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Saudi Arabia, with the description of a new species . ZooKeys . 228 . 39–49 . 2012 . 23166469. 3487640 . free . 2012ZooK..228...39S .

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