What is it about?
The Black Crazy Ant is a worldwide pest. These fast-moving, omnivorous pesky insects can be quite annoying, and they occur is a myriad of countries and territories around the tropics and subtropics. This study is the first to present their larvae -- i.e. their developing babies -- in minute details. The crazy ant larvae are plump and hairy, with no protuberances. The mouthparts are particularly interesting, where the outline of mandibles suggest the existence of two apical teeth, a medial blade, and paired sensilla by the base. Males seem to be much hairier than females, as suggested by a single, pioneering picture of a newborn make eating its egg shell. Pupae look like adult ants, but they have no cocoon.
Featured Image
Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash
Why is it important?
There are very few studies on insect larvae, ants included. Knowing the biology and morphology of larvae is central to understanding insect biology, and perfecting ways of combating pest species. This study is part of a series of investigations attempting to fill in this gap, focusing on key invasive pest species. In principle, given enough knowledge of specific details, one should be able to tell the species group of an ant based on collected larvae. Also find out a weak point in this biological cycle, given ant larvae are central to the nutrition of nests.
Perspectives
This was my first description of an ant larva, where I applied previous knowledge I acquire from working with wasps. I am very proud of this paper, and its popularity among my peers. Currently I am preparing a short manuscript revisiting some details on these larvae, taken from samples of different countries, and focusing on the queen and male larvae which unfortunately could not be covered in this first publication. Slowly and steadily, I have been increasing the number of ant species covered by our observations on larval biology and morphology, and hopefully a compendium will be prepared in the upcoming years! Stay tuned.
Dr Eduardo G P Fox
IBCCF / UFRJ
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: On the immature stages of the crazy ant Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille 1802) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Zootaxa, June 2007, Magnolia Press,
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1503.1.1.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Development of the Crazy Ant Paratrechina longicornis
A short paper presenting the number of larval instars and parameters for the development of the larvae described in this other publication.
Methods for rearing Crazy Ants at Home or in the Lab
This paper explains how anyone can capture a colony of crazy ants and rear it for studies or trivial pleasure.
Contributors
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