What Eats Every Animal in its Path?
Army ants! An army ant colony will raid other ant colonies, kill and devour up to 100,000 animals a day and migrates long distances to find more food. Not only have they founded nests, developed a social hierarchy, and migrate to other areas, but they also have a very interesting life cycle and colony structure. Army ants also known as "Driver Ants" belong to one of the subfamilies of ants called the Dorylinae, after the Greek word meaning "spear". There are approximately 250 species of army ants or "killer ants" found mostly in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia, Central and South America. Killer ants is a term to describe any of several species of ants that are predatory, attack en masse when their mounds are disturbed, and can kill animals many times their size, even deer if they are immobilized. They have been called the fiercest predators on Earth. Predator ants kill more individuals than all the big predators combined.

What are Ants?
Ants live practically everywhere but are most abundant in warm climates. There are about 10,000 kinds, or "species," of ants. Within each species there are usually many different types. Ants are social insects that live in colonies and are some of the most successful insects. Ants are one of the most successful groups of insects, are of particular interest because they form advanced colonies. They belong to the order Hymenoptera, and are close relatives of the sphecid wasps. Have you ever seen an ant dragging another insect many times its weight? It is the ant's exoskeleton and muscle arrangement that gives it its strength.

How Many Ants can be Found in a Single Nest?
There may be as many as 659,000 ants in a single nest.

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