Formigas GIGANTES da Amazônia: CEPHALOTES

Registro de um dia na vida desses insetos fantásticos.
Local: Rio Preto da Eva - Amazonas - Brasil
2021 - Péricles Dias Photography
Proibido reprodução total ou parcial sem prévia autoriação.
Common in the New World tropics, Turtle ants have long attracted the attention of tropical biologists due to their unusual soldier caste with large armored heads that match the size and shape of their nest entrances. Nests occupy pre-existing arboreal cavities, and soldiers function as living doors to admit incoming foragers or exclude potential intruders.
Cephalotes (119 species) consume a mostly herbivorous diet supplemented by pollen, bird feces and vertebrate urine (e.g. Cephalotes atratus) (Baroni Urbani and de Andrade 1997; Powell 2008).