Description

Insect – Dorylinae – Ecitonini

Pliocene

Rita Blanca Formation

Oldham County, TX USA.

Arthropod.

14mm part and counterpart on 42mm and 46mm slabs.

The Dorylinae is a subfamily of predatory ants with the Ectonini being a tribe that includes army ants (driver ants).  Ants have a fossil history dating back to the Early Cretaceous with dorylines apparently evolving not long after the appearance of the earliest ants.  The army ants of Africa were once thought to have evolved independently of those of South America but recent studies have concluded that they had a common ancestor back in the Middle Cretaceous when those continents were still close together.

Army ants are the ones you see in movies that live in tropical regions and crawl in huge swarms through forests attacking every animal in their path.  However, there are also army ants that live in Texas (and as far north as Iowa) but they specialize in hunting other ants.

Army ants in Iowa?