The Bullet ant (Munuri)

Dec 18, 2022 Features / Columnists, Interesting Creatures in Guyana

The Bullet ant

Kaieteur News

By Shervin Belgrave

As a boy, my father, a former miner would tell me tales of how he fell ill with fever and excruciating pain after being stung by large black ants called “Munuri”, while searching for gold in Guyana’s dense jungle.

Since then, I became interested in finding out more about this interesting creature that drove fear into my father, other gold miners and Amerindians living in the hinterland regions.

I soon found out that the Munuri as it is locally known in the country is the bullet ant- the largest ant in the world.

During my teenage years, I got my own encounter with the bullet ant while strolling through the Venezuelan jungle. The Venezuelans called it “Hormigas 24” (referring to 24 hours of pain after being stung).

I was lucky enough not to get “stung”. My Venezuelan friends said, “do not wish for it or you will have regrets.”

It is mainly a tropical rainforest ant and got the name “bullet ant” because of its “powerful painful sting.”

Some scientists compare the stings of bullet ants to the shot of a bullet and according to Schmidt Pain Index; it has the most painful sting of any insect.

Justin Schmidt, an American entomologist described the pain like “Walking over a flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel”.

Apart from the excruciating pain, the venom makes humans sick and may result in blood appearing in faeces as a common symptom.

Bullet ants, however, will only sting if provoked so if you ever see one in the wild, do not attempt to cross its path.

If you are curious and want to disturb a bullet ant then it is important to note that when one of them stings, it releases chemicals that signal other bullet ants in the vicinity to sting the threat repeatedly until the colony is safe.

The scientific name of the bullet ant is Paraponera clavata, and it inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America.

Worker ants are 18–30 mm long and resemble stout, reddish-black, wingless wasps. The queen ant is not much larger than the workers.

Bullet ants are generally not aggressive but can be vicious when defending their nests and sting with unbridled ferocity.

Colonies consist of several hundred ants and are usually situated at the bases of trees. Workers forage arboreally in the area directly above the nest for small arthropods and nectar, often as far as the upper canopy; little foraging occurs on the forest floor. Nectar, carried between the mandibles, is the most common food taken back to the nest by foragers.

Source of information (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera_clavata)