"Green ant" redirects here. For the Australian green-head ant, see Green-head ant.
Not to be confused with fire ant.
Weaver ant
Temporal range: Ypresian – Recent 52.1–0 Ma
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Weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) major worker (India).
Weaver ant (Oecophylla longinoda) major worker (Tanzania)
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Family:
Formicidae
Subfamily:
Formicinae
Tribe:
Oecophyllini Emery, 1895
Genus:
Oecophylla Smith, 1860
Type species
Formica virescens (junior synonym of Oecophylla smaragdina)
Diversity[1]
2 extant species 15 extinct species
Oecophylla range map. Oecophylla longinoda in blue, Oecophylla smaragdina in red.[2]
Weaver ants or green ants are eusocial insects of the Hymenoptera family Formicidae belonging to the tribe Oecophyllini. Weaver ants live in trees (they are obligately arboreal) and are known for their unique nest building behaviour where workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk.[3] Colonies can be extremely large consisting of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and containing more than half a million workers. Like many other ant species, weaver ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects (Hemiptera). Weaver ant workers exhibit a clear bimodal size distribution, with almost no overlap between the size of the minor and major workers.[4][5] The major workers are approximately 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) in length and the minors approximately half the length of the majors. Major workers forage, defend, maintain, and expand the colony whereas minor workers tend to stay within the nests where they care for the brood and 'milk' scale insects in or close to the nests.
Dead weaver ant queen carried by a worker ant
Weaver ants vary in color from reddish to yellowish brown dependent on the species. Oecophylla smaragdina found in Australia often have bright green gasters. Weaver ants are highly territorial and workers aggressively defend their territories against intruders. Because they prey on insects harmful to their host trees, weaver ants are sometime used by indigenous farmers, particularly in southeast Asia, as natural biocontrol agents against agricultural pests. Although weaver ants lack a functional sting they can inflict painful bites and often spray formic acid[6][7] directly at the bite wound resulting in intense discomfort.
^Bolton, B. (2015). "Oecophylla". AntCat. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
^Dlussky, G.M.; Wappler, T.; Wedmann, S. (2008). "New middle Eocene formicid species from Germany and the evolution of weaver ants". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 53 (4): 615–626. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0406.
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Weber, NA (1946). "Dimorphism in the African Oecophylla worker and an anomaly (Hym.: Formicidae)" (PDF). Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 39: 7–10. doi:10.1093/aesa/39.1.7.
^Wilson, Edward O. & Robert W. Taylor (1964). "A fossil ant colony: new evidence of social antiquity" (PDF). Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 71 (2): 93–103. doi:10.1155/1964/17612.
^Bradshaw, J. W. S.; Baker, R.; Howse, P. E. (1979). "Chemical composition of the poison apparatus secretions of the African weaver ant, Oecophylla longinoda, and their role in behaviour". Physiological Entomology. 4 (1): 39–46. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3032.1979.tb00175.x. S2CID 84627128.
Weaverants or green ants are eusocial insects of the Hymenoptera family Formicidae belonging to the tribe Oecophyllini. Weaverants live in trees (they...
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"large-bottomed ants") Atta laevigata are toasted alive and eaten. In areas of India, and throughout Burma and Thailand, a paste of the green weaverant (Oecophylla...
colloquial names for several species of weaverants in the genus Oecophylla in Southeast Asia include "fire ants" because of their similar coloration and...
Ant egg soup is a soup made from the eggs of the weaverant species Oecophylla smaragdina. Ant egg soups are traditional dishes in northern Lao and Thai...
plataleoides, also called the red weaver-ant mimicking jumper, is a jumping spider that mimics the Asian weaverant (Oecophylla smaragdina) in morphology...
Carpenter ants (Camponotus spp.) are large ants (workers 7 to 13 mm or 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in) indigenous to many forested parts of the world. They build nests...
Ant eggs (Thai: ไข่มดเเดง, RTGS: khai mot daeng) refer to both the eggs and pupae of weaverants (Oecophylla smaragdina, known in Thailand as red ants)...
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Camponotus textor, also known as Brazilian weaverant, is a species of fairly common tree-dwelling ant native to South and Central America. It is believed...
limited but increasing extent. A study from Australia reported that the weaverant Oecophylla smaragdina acted as predator and deterrent to limit S. mangiferae...
saundersi is common during territorial battles with other ant species or groups. Territorial weaverants (Oecophylla smaragdina) are known to stalk and attack...
worker ants, though sometimes it is spun with the developing ant itself. This way of spinning a cocoon can be useful to some species such as a weaverant. Camponotus...
activities which may include specifics like gathering amlori tup (larvae of weaverant, Oecophylla smaragdina), binding betel leaf plants, planting some bamboo...
Graystock, Peter; Hughes, William O. H. (2011). "Disease resistance in a weaverant, Polyrhachis dives, and the role of antibiotic-producing glands". Behavioral...
Retrieved 2024-05-16. Graystock P, Hughes WO (2011). "Disease resistance in a weaverant, Polyrhachis dives, and the role of antibiotic-producing glands". Behavioral...
fairly common species of weaverant from the New World. They are opportunistic cavity-dwellers, semi-nomadic carpenter ants which are found around grasslands...
ants, there are also colorful species that follow a different strategy. C. bitaeniata uses chemical mimicry to be accepted by the aggressive weaver ant...
mammals, including other primates. Insect species consumed include the weaverant Oecophylla longinoda, Macrotermes termites, and honey bees. The red colobus...
methylation in human and mouse genome. The bimodal distribution of sizes of weaverant workers arises due to existence of two distinct classes of workers, namely...
of the queen and start to produce queen pheromones. Similarly, queen weaverants Oecophylla longinoda have exocrine glands that produce pheromones which...
exhibit against their predominant predator, the O. smaragdina weaverant. When these ants are in close proximity, the bees produce and deposit sticky barriers...
food sharing was key to ant society and he used an illustration of it as the frontispiece for his book The Social World of the Ants Compared with that of...
Graystock, Peter; Hughes, William O. H. (2011). "Disease resistance in a weaverant, Polyrhachis dives, and the role of antibiotic-producing glands". Behavioral...
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