| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication: | 2009 |
| Authors: | D. J. C. KRONAUER |
| Journal: | Myrmecological News |
| Volume: | 12 |
| Pagination: | 51-65 |
| Keywords: | Aenictinae, colony fission, Dorylinae, dorylomorph section, Ecitoninae, group predation, nomadism, review. |
| Abstract: | Army ants are dominant social hunters of invertebrates and thereby play an integral role in tropical ecosystems. They are defined by a suite of evolutionarily interrelated physiological, behavioural and morphological traits, the army ant adaptive syndrome: they are obligate group predators, they frequently relocate their nests, and their permanently wingless queens found new colonies accompanied by workers. If this functional definition is applied rather than a taxonomic one, army ants have evolved repeatedly in distantly related groups of ants. In addition, army ants typically have extremely male-biased numerical sex-ratios, and the queens of the studied species are inseminated by many males. The aim of this review is to provide a synthesis of the most recent work on army ant biology, to outline an evolutionary scenario that connects the different aspects of army ant life-history, and to give some directions for future research. |