TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kronauer, D.J.C.
T1  - Recent advances in army ant biology (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
JF  - Myrmecological News
Y1  - 2009
DA  - 2009
PB  - The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics
SN  - Print: 1994-4136 - Online: 1997-3500
N1  - 10.25849/myrmecol.news_012:051
DO  - 10.25849/myrmecol.news_012:051
SP  - 51-65
KW  - Aenictinae, colony fission, Dorylinae, dorylomorph section, Ecitoninae, group predation, nomadism, review.
AB  - Army ants are dominant social hunters of invertebrates and thereby play an integral role in tropical ecosystems. They are defined by a suite of evolutionarily interrelated physiological, behavioural and morphological traits, the army ant adaptive syndrome: they are obligate group predators, they frequently relocate their nests, and their permanently wingless queens found new colonies accompanied by workers. If this functional definition is applied rather than a taxonomic one, army ants have evolved repeatedly in distantly related groups of ants. In addition, army ants typically have extremely male-biased numerical sex-ratios, and the queens of the studied species are inseminated by many males. The aim of this review is to provide a synthesis of the most recent work on army ant biology, to outline an evolutionary scenario that connects the different aspects of army ant life-history, and to give some directions for future research.
JA  - Myrmecological News
M3  - Review Article
VL  - 12