Pheidole obscurithorax stays ahead of the competition using group retrieval of food (in this case, a scavenged cockroach carcass).  Working together, the ants can usually get the bounty home before a more aggressive species usurps their find.

Orlando, Florida, USA
A worker ant (Technomyrmex difficilis) tending aphids.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Pheidole obscurithorax stays ahead of the competition using group retrieval of food (in this case, a scavenged cockroach carcass).  Working together, the ants can usually get the bounty home before a more aggressive species usurps their find.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Tetramorium bicarinatum workers gather nectar from glands of an invasive mallow. Some plants use nectar to attract ants as a defense against herbivorous insects, as ants also eat insect eggs and caterpillars.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Tetramorium bicarinatum foragers gather sugar-laden nectar from the underside of a leaf.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Tetramorium bicarinatum feeding from an extrafloral nectary.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Amyciaea albomaculata is a crab spider that mimics Oecophylla smaragdina in order to approach and prey on the ants.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
Death by spider: an Oecophylla smaragdina green tree ant captured by a web-building spider.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
A Pheidole minor worker has picked up a beetle carcass and is carrying it back to her nest. Ants are important scavengers and recyclers of dead arthropods.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
Tetramorium bicarinatum feeding from an extrafloral nectary.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Tetramorium bicarinatum feeding from an extrafloral nectary.

Orlando, Florida, USA
Tetramorium bicarinatum feeding from an extrafloral nectary.

Orlando, Florida, USA
See photo in original gallery.
all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013