A month ago, thanks to the CapCo grant, the Manchester Museum purchased a new stereo microscope (Olympus, SZX 16) with a digital colour camera (DP27-CU-1-2), which is designed for photographing small and diminutive objects. Two weeks ago, we had a training session and here is the first image taken by means of this microscope and camera (see above). We are about ready to start a large project aimed at the digitisation of tens of thousands of diminutive insects, including type specimens of the Feather-winged Beetles (Cryptophagidae), Fungus Beetles (Latridiidae) and many other small-sized groups, deposited in the Manchester Museum.
Many species of ants (family Formicidae) hold a great fascination for the human from the ancient time. For instance, Pliny the Elder believed that ants are the only living creatures besides man that bury their dead. Ants have been greatly admired for the qualities of intelligence, hard work, good organisation, and harmonious social life. Moral lessons for mankind were frequently drawn from various aspects of their behaviour. In the Old Testament, one can find the following wisdom: ‘Go to the any thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest’. Ant colonies in their anthills could be seen as both a microcosm of man and his world, and a positive example of communal cooperation. However, not all ants have acquired such a positive reputation among humans, some of them are feared: e.g., the Bulldog Ant (Myrmecia sp.), or the African Driver Ants(Dorylus spp.), which sometimes are depicted as merciless invaders that consume all creatures in their path, especially in Hollywood horror movies; for general information about myrmecophobia (=fear of ants) see here.
One of the feared ant species is the Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata), a large black ant that can reach a length up to 2-3 cm (see photo). It is the largest ant of Central and South Americas, known from the Caribbean lowlands of such countries as Honduras and Costa Rica, southward to Peru and Brazil. Ants live in large subterranean colonies with the entrances situated at the base of large trees. Each colony contains from 700 to 1400 worker ants: i.e., members of the worker caste, all are infertile females. Workers are solitary hunters that search for their prey (various smaller insects) from ground level up to the canopy, and can be seen and encountered during both day- and night times; for more information about Bullet Ant see here and here.
This ant should be avoided as it can inflict an extremely painful sting (its sting is arrowed in the photo above). The venom of the Bullet Ant contains poneratoxin, a neuropeptide causing an acute pain and local paralysis, but not fatal to humans. The regional name of Paraponera clavata in Costa Rica is ‘hormiga bala’, meaning ‘bullet ant’. People who have been stung by this ant say that its bite feels like a bullet wound, or even like a 3-inch burning rusty nail in your heel; the pain can last for 24 or more hours, and a person may need 2 weeks to recover from a single sting. If someone scored various stinging insects like bees, wasps and ants on a pain scale from 1 to 4, еру Bullet Ant would surely get the highest, 4-point score. Hence, it is hardly surprising that Native Americans of the Yurok tribe in California believe that ants became venomous by catching chips in their mouths from a mythical burning arrowhead. In Brazil, members of the indigenous tribe Satere-Mawe, who reside along the border between the Pará and Amazonas states in Brazil, use Bullet Ants and their painful stings in a ceremony of initiating young men into adulthood; watch the video below.
Despite some undeniably negative qualities (from the point of view of humans, of course) that can be attributed to bullet ants, the ant still inspires some naturalists to poetize them. Here is the latest limerick dedicated to the Bullet Ant by Richard A. Jones (2021):
The bullet ant feared no attacker,
Because with her sting she fought backer.
The venom she dealt
Was the worst to be felt –
A true hypodermic fire-cracker.
References and further reading:
Henderson C. L. 2010. Butterflies, moths, and other invertebrates of Costa Rica. Austin, University of Texas Press, 173 pp.
Jones R. A. & Ure-Jones C. 2021. A natural history of insects in 100 limericks. Pelagic Publishing, 110 pp.
Kritsky G. & Cherry R. 2000. Insect Mythology. Writers Club Press, 140 pp.
Entomology Manchester 