Aenictus

Aenictus is a large army ant genus distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics.^[3] It contains about 181 species,^[2] making it one of the larger ant genera of the world.^[4]

Biology and distribution

The genus presently has 181 species,^[2] distributed through the East Mediterranean, Afrotropical, Oriental, Indo-Australian, and Australian regions.^[4][5][6][7] Most of the species are tropical,^[6] with terrestrial habitats, foraging in soil, leaf litter, most of the Southeast Asian species forage on the ground, and some on trees^[8] and hunting other ant species and termites.^[5][9][10]

Most species of the genus are specialized predators of other ants, especially of immature stages.^[5][9][11] Only some Asian species such as Aenictus gracilis, Aenictus laeviceps, Aenictus hodgsoni, and Aenictus paradentatus are known to hunt a variety of invertebrate prey, including ants, using a large number of workers in raids.^{[5][8][12][13]} Foraging raids undertaken by these ants occur both day and night, usually across the ground surface but occasionally also in trees. During raids, numerous workers attack ant nests in a small area, with several workers coordinating their efforts to carry large prey items back to the nest or bivouac.^[3] Species of Aenictus are generally small, monomorphic and yellow to dark brown.^[10]

Species

References