Bullet Ant Facts: 12 Things You Did Not Know

The bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) is famous for one thing: its sting. But there is a lot more to this rainforest giant. Here are 12 facts about the bullet ant, from its favourite food to the fly that hunts it.

1. It tops the sting pain index

Entomologist Justin Schmidt let himself be stung by dozens of insects and ranked the pain from 1 to 4. The bullet ant got the highest score of all, a 4 plus. Read why in our post on the bullet ant sting.

2. The pain can last a whole day

In Venezuela it is called hormiga veinticuatro, the "24 hour ant", because the pain of a sting can come in waves for up to a full day. In Costa Rica it is simply called bala, the bullet, because a sting is said to feel like being shot.

3. It is one of the largest ants in the world

A winged bullet ant queen with her long antennae.

Workers are roughly 18 to 30 mm long, stout and reddish black. With their big jaws and large sting, they look a bit like a wingless wasp.

4. It is the only one of its kind

Paraponera clavata is the only living species in its genus, and the only member of its own subfamily, the Paraponerinae. Its closest known relative, Paraponera dieteri, is extinct and was found in amber from the Dominican Republic.

5. Its favourite food is nectar

For an ant with such a reputation, the diet is surprisingly sweet. Nectar is the most common food workers bring home, carried as a droplet between their jaws. They also hunt small insects.

6. It lives at the bottom of a tree and works at the top

Colonies nest in the ground at the base of a tree, but the workers forage high up in the canopy, all the way to the top branches. They hardly search for food on the forest floor.

7. It squeaks when you get too close

When the nest is disturbed, workers make a squeaking sound by rubbing two body parts together. It is a warning, and it is wise to listen to it.

8. The colonies are small

For such a big ant, a colony is modest: usually a few hundred workers, sometimes more than two thousand, with one queen. She looks almost exactly like a worker, so she is easy to miss.

9. The queen has to hunt to start a colony

Many ant queens seal themselves in and raise their first workers on their own body reserves. A young bullet ant queen cannot. She has to go out and hunt until her first workers are adult.

10. A tiny fly hunts injured workers

The phorid fly Apocephalus paraponerae is drawn to the smell of an injured bullet ant within minutes. It lays its eggs in the wounded worker, and the larvae grow up inside it.

11. A fungus can turn it into a zombie

A fungus of the genus Ophiocordyceps infects bullet ants and makes them climb a tree trunk, where they die firmly attached. From there, the fungus spreads its spores over the forest floor.

12. It is the ant in a famous coming-of-age ritual

The Sateré-Mawé people in Brazil weave bullet ants into gloves, which young men wear as part of their path to adulthood. Read more in the bullet ant glove ritual.

Bonus: it is not a bull ant

Bullet ants and bull ants are often mixed up, but they are very different ants. Bull ants belong to the genus Myrmecia and live in Australia. Read how to tell them apart in our post bull ant or bullet ant.

Want to know more? Read our full post on Paraponera clavata, or find out whether you can keep a bullet ant yourself.

Sources

• AntWiki. Paraponera clavata.

• Wikipedia. Paraponera clavata.

Photos: © Jonghyun Park