Latest update February 10th, 2025 6:29 AM
The Bullet Ants (Paraponera clavata)
Interesting Creatures…
Kaieteur News – Paraponera clavata is a species of ant, commonly known as the bullet ant, named for its extremely painful sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America.
The specific epithet of the ant, clavata, means “club-shaped.” The generic name, Paraponera, translates to “near-Ponera.” Due to its notoriety, the ant has several Native American, Spanish and Portuguese local names in different geographical areas. Perhaps the best-known name is the Venezuelan hormiga veinticuatro (the “24 ant” or “24-hour ant”), referring to the full day of pain that follows being stung; it can also refer to the time it takes to kill a human. In Brazil, the Portuguese names given by locals include formiga cabo verde, formigão, or formigão-preto (big black ant), and Native American-derived names are tocandera, tocandira, and tocanquibira. These names derive from the Tupi–Guarani tuca-ndy, which translates to “the one wounding deeply.” Other names by which it is referred include chacha, cumanagata, munuri, siámña, yolosa, and viente cuatro hora hormiga. In Costa Rica, P. clavata is known as bala, meaning “bullet.” P. clavata also has several common names; it is most commonly known as the bullet ant because of the extreme pain it delivers following a sting, similar to that of getting shot. Other names are the lesser giant hunting ant and conga ant.
This is further supported by the fact that P. clavata is a forest ant that forages on the ground and up into bushes and trees.
Description
Worker ants are 18–30 mm (0.7–1.2 in) long and resemble stout, reddish-black, wingless wasps. Paraponera is predatory, and like all primitive poneromorphs, does not display polymorphism in the worker caste; the queen ant is not much larger than the workers. They are not aggressive ants but are vicious when defending the nest, when they produce a stridulating sound and sting with ferocity.
Distribution
Paraponera is distributed throughout Central and South America, commonly found in the wet Neotropical realm. These ants are found in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica from the north and in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil from the south. Colonies are found in lowland areas, at elevations ranging from sea level to 750 metres (2,461 ft). However, specimens have been collected at elevations of 1,500 metres (4,921 ft) in La Amistad International Park.
Enemies
This ant is a predator of Greta oto, the glasswing butterfly. This butterfly attempts to combat P. clavata by producing chemical extracts during the larval stage that are unpalatable to these ants.
Parasites
The small (1.5- to 2.0-mm-long) phorid fly, Apocephalus paraponerae, is a parasite of injured workers of P. clavata, of which the supply is constant because frequent aggressive encounters occur between neighbouring colonies, resulting in maimed workers. The flies are able to parasitise healthy ants if the ants are artificially restrained, but healthy ants are agile and able to repel them. Both male and female flies are attracted by the scent of injured ants; the females lay eggs, as well as feed, and the males feed and possibly mate with the females. The flies are attracted to a crushed ant within two to three minutes and 10 or more flies may be attracted to each ant. Each ant can harbour 20 fly larvae. Carl Rettenmeyer observed P. clavata actively trying to attack A. paraponerae when they approached the entrance to their nest.
Relationship with humans
Sting
The bullet ant’s sting is currently the highest on Schmidt’s sting pain index, at 4.0+. According to Justin O. Schmidt, the pain is like “Walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel.” Some victims compared the pain to that of being shot, hence the name of the insect. It is described as causing “waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.” Lymphadenopathy, edema, tachycardia and fresh blood appearing in human victim feces are common symptoms. Poneratoxin, a paralysing neurotoxic peptide isolated from the venom, affects voltage-dependent sodium ion channels and blocks the synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. It is being investigated for possible medical applications.
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