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EntityQ332747· pop 32· linked from 461 articles

Also known as legionary ant, marabunta

group of nomadic predatory ant species

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

African Dorylus raid The name army ant (or legionary ant or marabunta) is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limited area.

Another shared feature is that, unlike most ant species, army ants do not construct permanent nests; an army ant colony moves almost incessantly over the time it exists. All species are members of the true ant family, Formicidae, but several groups have independently evolved the same basic behavioural and ecological syndrome. This syndrome is often referred to as "legionary behaviour", and may be an example of convergent evolution.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “army ant” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.