Weaver ant
| Oecophylla Temporal range: Eocene - Recent | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nest construction by O. smaragdina major workers (Thailand) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
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| Subfamily: | |
| Tribe: | Oecophyllini |
| Genus: | Oecophylla Smith, 1860 |
| Species | |
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†Oecophylla atavina | |
| Diversity | |
| 2 species | |
 | |
| Oecophylla range map. Oecophylla longinoda in blue, Oecophylla smaragdina in red.[1] | |
Weaver ants (also known as tailor ants or green ants; genus Oecophylla) are eusocial insects of the Formicidae family. They make their nests from living leaves, still attached to the tree. Instead of needles and thread, they use a rare type of silk, made in the mouths of their own grubs.[2] The grubs are passed to and from between the leaves, to sew them together. Tailor ants may be found in the rainforest of Asia.[3]
Colonies of weaver ants can be very large, containing more than half a million workers. The colonies can be made up of more than a hundred nests across several trees.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Dlussky, Gennady M.; Wappler, Torsten; Wedmann, Sonja (2008). "New middle Eocene formicid species from Germany and the evolution of weaver ants" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 53 (4): 615–626. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0406. S2CID 54222911.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ Hölldober, B. & Wilson, E.O. 1990. The ants. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- ↑ Ganeri, Anita (2000). Jungle Animals Over 100 Questions and Answers to Things You Want to Know. Dubai, U.A.E. ISBN 0-75254-909-X.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Other websites
[change | change source]
Media related to Oecophylla at Wikimedia Commons
- Weaver Ants - National Geographic, May 2011[permanent dead link]
- AntWeb - Ants of the world Archived 2019-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Tree Of Life - Oecophylla Archived 2021-01-25 at the Wayback Machine
