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The brood nest of the ant-plant ant Azteca holds a mix of ant larvae (the larger grubs) and Beltian food bodies (the smaller ovoids). Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
An Azteca foundress queen shows off the powerful mandibles she uses to gain access to the hollow interior of Cecropia stems. Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
Dolichoderine ants are high-energy insects. The Azteca ants that rule tropical rainforest canopies, for example, get many of their carbohydrates from relationships with honeydew-producing scale insects. Jatun Sacha, Napo, Ecuador
An old Azteca guard stands alert along a tree trunk in a Colombian forest. Note the missing antennal segments, a sign of past battles. Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
Ants won't often eat members of their own species, but they are happy to consume the dead bodies of other types of ants. Here, fiesty little Azteca ants cooperate to lug the remains of a leafcutter ant worker back to their nest, where it will be fed to the developing larvae. Potrerillo, Tolima, Colombia
Azteca Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
An Azteca guard in her natural habitat: embedded aggressively in a myrmecologist's skin. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
An Azteca guard in her natural habitat: embedded aggressively in a myrmecologist's skin. Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Azteca Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
The brood nest of the ant-plant ant Azteca holds a mix of ant larvae (the larger grubs) and Beltian food bodies (the smaller ovoids).

Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
The brood nest of the ant-plant ant Azteca holds a mix of ant larvae (the larger grubs) and Beltian food bodies (the smaller ovoids). Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
The brood nest of the ant-plant ant Azteca holds a mix of ant larvae (the larger grubs) and Beltian food bodies (the smaller ovoids).

Icononzo, Tolima, Colombia
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all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013