Sensitive trigger hairs of the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus coquereli protrude forward from the base of the mandibles.

Madagascar
Caught!  A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

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

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica
Odontomachus bauri with a young cricket it has caught.

La Selva, Heredia, Costa Rica
Caught!  A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

Madagascar
Caught!  A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

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

Gamboa, Panama
Caught! A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

Madagascar
Caught!  A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

Madagascar
Caught! A small cricket is impaled on the mandibles of a malagasy trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus coquereli.

Madagascar
See photo in original gallery.
all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013