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Driver ant

Dorylus
Dorylus gribodoi casent0172627 dorsal 1.jpg
Dorylus gribodoi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Dorylinae
Leach, 1815
Tribe: Dorylini
Leach, 1815
Genus: Dorylus
Fabricius, 1793
Type species
Vespa helvola
Diversity
61 species
Synonyms

Cosmaecetes Spinola, 1851
Shuckardia Emery, 1895
Sphecomyrmex Schulz, 1906
Sphegomyrmex Imhoff, 1852


Cosmaecetes Spinola, 1851
Shuckardia Emery, 1895
Sphecomyrmex Schulz, 1906
Sphegomyrmex Imhoff, 1852

Dorylus, also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swahili, and is one of numerous similar words from regional Bantu languages used by indigenous peoples to describe various species of these ants. Unlike the New World members of the former subfamily Ecitoninae (now Dorylinae), members of this genus do form temporary anthills lasting from a few days up to three months. Each colony can contain over 20 million individuals. As with their New World counterparts, there is a soldier class among the workers, which is larger, with a very large head and pincer-like mandibles. They are capable of stinging, but very rarely do so, relying instead on their powerful shearing jaws.

Seasonally, when food supplies become short, they leave the hill and form marching columns of up to 50,000,000 ants, which are considered a menace to people, though they can be easily avoided; a column can only travel about 20 metres in an hour. It is for those unable to move, or when the columns pass through homes, that there is the greatest risk. Their presence is, conversely, beneficial to certain human communities, such as the Maasai, as they perform a pest prevention service in farming communities, consuming the majority of other crop-pests, from insects to large rats.


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Wikipedia

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