Trap-Jaw Ants - # - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography - Insect Pictures

Trap-Jaw Ants

Several lineages of ants have independently evolved an effective predatory device: spring-loaded mandibles that snap shut on a hair trigger.

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Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus bauri. Millisecnds ahead of a mandible strike, a tropical trap-jaw ant closes in on its cricket prey.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus bauri

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus rixosus trap-jaw ant with mandibles in the open (top) and closed (bottom) positions.

Cambodia (laboratory colony at the University of Illinois)

Portrait of the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus rixosus with her jaws closed.

Cambodia (laboratory colony at the University of Illinois)

Portrait of the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus rixosus with her jaws open. Note the forward-facing trigger hairs.

Cambodia (laboratory colony at the University of Illinois)

Odontomachus bauri. Trap-jaw ants are normally thought of as predators, but they also tend honeydew-producing insects.

Gamboa, Panama

An Odontomachus bauri worker has captured an earthworm and is carrying it home.

Gamboa, Panama

Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica

Original size: 2052x3076 |

Current: 401x600 |

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