Cephalotes pusillus - turtle ant, major worker. The deep recesses on the head (the "scrobes") allow the ant to fully retract her delicate antennae. Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Soldier Ants and Major Workers

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Soldier and worker ants in the fungus garden of an Atta cephalotes colony.

Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences

Cephalotes pusillus - turtle ant, major worker. The deep recesses on the head (the "scrobes") allow the ant to fully retract her delicate antennae.

Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Cephalotes varians, turtle ant soldier. The bizarre disc on the head is used as a living door to block the nest entrance.

Florida Keys, USA

Cephalotes varians turtle ant soldier showing the head disk used for guarding nest entrances.

Florida Keys, USA

In a laboratory colony, a Cephalotes rohweri turtle ant soldier demonstrates how she uses her massive head to block the nest entrance. She is essentially a living door, and will not admit any ants other then her own nestmate. The second ant here is a Crematogaster acrobat ant, perhaps the turtle ants' biggest competitors for living space.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Cephalotes varians turtle ants. To enter her nest in a mangrove twig, a foraging worker must pass the door-guarding soldier whose head is roughly the same size and shape as the entrance. These ants don't build the nests themselves; rather, they inhabit burrows made by beetle larvae.

Florida Keys, USA

Cephalotes rohweri, the Arizona turtle ant. The broad head disc of this soldier is used in nature to block the nest entrance. This species nests in old burrows of wood-boring beetles and constantly faces usurpation by competing ants.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Major and minor workers of Cephalotes rohweri, the Arizona turtle ant.

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Cephalotes pusillus - turtle ant, major worker. The deep recesses on the head (the "scrobes") allow the ant to fully retract her delicate antennae.

Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Canon EOS 7D |

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Original size: 3732x2488 |

Current: 800x534 |

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Keywords: white myrmicinae soldier ants cephalotes major worker turtle ant soldier

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Soldier Ants and Major Workers

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