If you're even just a little into ants you've heard of Gigantiops destructor.
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If you're even just a little into ants you've heard of Gigantiops destructor. These beautiful big-eye'd ants live in humid forests in South America. They live in smaller colonies and hunt by sight. They are excellent jumpers with long slender legs that allow them to navigate leaf litter and dense foliage.
They are also fairly well studied, as ants go. You can find many papers and videos showing how they live.
But, whenever I see them I am haunted by a mystery...
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If you're even just a little into ants you've heard of Gigantiops destructor. These beautiful big-eye'd ants live in humid forests in South America. They live in smaller colonies and hunt by sight. They are excellent jumpers with long slender legs that allow them to navigate leaf litter and dense foliage.
They are also fairly well studied, as ants go. You can find many papers and videos showing how they live.
But, whenever I see them I am haunted by a mystery...
1/
For on the other side of the Atlantic ocean there is another ant. She also has huge eyes. But, her legs and antennae are shorter and more stout. She isn't closely related to Gigantiops, but really we know very little about this ant. There are no photos of living specimens. There are only three papers. This ant has only been collected a few times in human history. It may well be extinct. Santschiella kohli of Congo and Zaire.
One of the only known specimens is the the basement of the AMNH 2/
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For on the other side of the Atlantic ocean there is another ant. She also has huge eyes. But, her legs and antennae are shorter and more stout. She isn't closely related to Gigantiops, but really we know very little about this ant. There are no photos of living specimens. There are only three papers. This ant has only been collected a few times in human history. It may well be extinct. Santschiella kohli of Congo and Zaire.
One of the only known specimens is the the basement of the AMNH 2/
When I walk by the museum I think about this ant.
Since it has shorter legs it must hunt in a very different way from Gigantiops. I wonder how it moves! But there are no videos of this ant. No photos except for the specimen.
No information but a few terse paragraphs.
I really want to know more about this ant!
Big eyes are an adaption for hunting in ants, but without long legs perhaps she is an ambush predator?
Who *is* she????
3/3
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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic on
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When I walk by the museum I think about this ant.
Since it has shorter legs it must hunt in a very different way from Gigantiops. I wonder how it moves! But there are no videos of this ant. No photos except for the specimen.
No information but a few terse paragraphs.
I really want to know more about this ant!
Big eyes are an adaption for hunting in ants, but without long legs perhaps she is an ambush predator?
Who *is* she????
3/3
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@futurebird wow, that *is* a big mystery! is it possible that the ants traveled over from Zaire to North America somehow, like via ship? fan theory
Not likely, these ants aren't THAT closely related. They just have similar eyes and come from the same very large group of ants.
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When I walk by the museum I think about this ant.
Since it has shorter legs it must hunt in a very different way from Gigantiops. I wonder how it moves! But there are no videos of this ant. No photos except for the specimen.
No information but a few terse paragraphs.
I really want to know more about this ant!
Big eyes are an adaption for hunting in ants, but without long legs perhaps she is an ambush predator?
Who *is* she????
3/3
@futurebird she's a desert ant. Short legs for sand and dirt, no need to climb trees or navigate leaves, but good to be fast, and big eyes because night time is the right time in the desert
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@futurebird she's a desert ant. Short legs for sand and dirt, no need to climb trees or navigate leaves, but good to be fast, and big eyes because night time is the right time in the desert
But they were found in trees in Congo.
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Not likely, these ants aren't THAT closely related. They just have similar eyes and come from the same very large group of ants.
@futurebird @CatsWhoCode
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the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) connects Africa to South America. Tropical waves travel along it from east to west, and regularly convey dust and occasionally new insects from Africa to S. America. -
@futurebird @CatsWhoCode
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the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) connects Africa to South America. Tropical waves travel along it from east to west, and regularly convey dust and occasionally new insects from Africa to S. America.@futurebird @CatsWhoCode
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In modern times, the ITCZ rarely dips as far south as Congo and Zaire, but its latitude is probably affected by the shape and positions of the continets, and was probably further south in the early Cenozoic. So if there's a more distant relationship between those ants, that could be the connection. -
@futurebird @CatsWhoCode
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In modern times, the ITCZ rarely dips as far south as Congo and Zaire, but its latitude is probably affected by the shape and positions of the continets, and was probably further south in the early Cenozoic. So if there's a more distant relationship between those ants, that could be the connection. -
@llewelly that would make sense! So fascinating, though. @futurebird
@CatsWhoCode @futurebird according to wikipedia, both are in the subfamily Formicinae, each of a different tribe, each the only member of their tribe. Formicinae emerges in the Turonian (late Cretaceous), about 94 million to 90 million years ago. So that's an estimate of the maximum age of their common ancestor. Could be less than that, of course. Timetree can't find any genetic divergence time studies for the two species. Probably there's a museum DNA isuue.
