Investigation

Odontomachus: Amazing Mandibles!

Chris A. Schmidt

Trapjaw Ants 

Ants are spectacularly diverse. We currently know of about 12,000 ant species worldwide, and this is likely to be only half of the true number of ant species in the world. Each of these thousands of ant species is unique in how it looks, where it lives, and what it does. Some ants eat seeds, others farm fungus on fragments of leaves, and some feed on sugary secretions from aphids and other insects. A large percentage of ants are predators, and these typically eat other insects. Predatory ants have evolved an amazing diversity of behaviors and strategies for catching their prey. Some hunt in large swarms and overpower their prey by sheer force of numbers (these include the army ants), a few are visual predators and use their excellent eyesight to locate and stalk prey, and many use powerful venoms to paralyze and subdue otherwise agile or dangerous prey. 

Perhaps the most fascinating adaptations for hunting are found in the trapjaw ants, which use extremely powerful and fast mandibular strikes to stun or skewer their prey. This behavior has been evolved independently by several different ant lineages. This podcast focuses on two related groups of trapjaw ants, the ponerine genera Odontomachus and Anochetus.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Odontomachus bauri

Odontomachus bauri, showing the mandibles at different stages of opening. © 2005 Alex Wild

Ponerine Trapjaw Ants: Odontomachus and Anochetus 

Anochetus emarginatus. © 2004 Chris A. Schmidt

Odontomachus and Anochetus are the largest and most conspicuous of the trapjaw ants, and are also the best-studied. They are members of the subfamily Ponerinae and are sister genera, meaning that they are more closely-related to one another than they are to any other group of ants. They almost certainly evolved from a common ancestor which also hunted using trapjaws. Together these genera contain about 150 species worldwide, mainly in tropical rainforest habitats.

Odontomachus coquereli

Odontomachus coquereli, an unusual species from Madagascar. © 2006 Alex Wild

Like other trapjaw ants, Odontomachus and Anochetus have mandibles which can be opened up to a large angle (180° in this case; some other trapjaw ants can open their mandibles even further). The mandibles are attached to the middle of the front of the head (rather than at the sides, like in most other ants). From between the mandibles extend a pair of sensitive trigger hairs. When these hairs are brushed against potential prey, a rapid neurological response results in a near-instant closure of the mandibles, which move with extreme speed and force. In fact, this jaw closure has been measured to be the fastest movement by any animal yet measured.

The force of the mandibles on the prey either stuns or crushes it (in the case of Odontomachus) or skewers it on the sharp teeth (Anochetus). This is often followed by rapid application of the poisonous sting, which paralyzes the prey. In this way, these ants are able to catch prey that otherwise could quickly escape or prey which could use chemical or other defenses against the ant if given the opportunity. Trapjaw ants are thus very successful predators, which is demonstrated by their abundance and diversity worldwide. Odontomachus also use the force of their mandible closures for purposes besides hunting. They can actually propel themselves significant distances vertically or horizontally to escape predators or defend their nests. Similarly, they can expel small predators away from the nest.

Other Trapjaw Ants

Epopostruma frosti queen

Epopostruma frosti, a dacetine ant. © 2005 Alex Wild

Trapjaws have evolved at least two other times in ants. The Asian formicine genus Myrmoteras hunts using trapjaw mandibles, as do a number of myrmicine genera currently placed in the tribe Dacetini. There is some indication from recent molecular work that the Dacetini is not monophyletic, meaning that trapjaw mandibles could have evolved more than once in the Myrmicinae. In any case, myrmicine trapjaw ants show a greater diversity in the morphology and use of their trapjaws than do Myrmoteras, Odontomachus or Anochetus. Some of them have long mandibles and employ a hunting strategy that is basically similar to the ponerine trapjaw ants, while others have very short mandibles and hunt using extreme stealth, moving extraordinarily slowly while approaching prey and then snapping their mandibles shut. Some dacetines even smear soil or detritus on their bodies to camouflage themselves visually or chemically!

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Strumigenys szalayi

Strumigenys szalayi, another dacetine ant. © 2004 Alex Wild

About the Author

Odontomachus cephalotes

Odontomachus cephalotes. © 2004 Alex Wild

Chris Schmidt is a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, working in the Interdisciplinary Program in Insect Science. His research and interests span the fields of entomology and evolutionary biology. In his dissertation research he is studying the evolutionary history of ants in the subfamily Ponerinae (ponerines). These predominantly tropical ants form an ideal group in which to study social evolution in ants. Because they exhibit several traits considered ancestral within ants, ponerines offer a glimpse into what early ants may have been like. At the same time, ponerines display a wide range of derived social systems and extensive morphological and ecological diversity, making them an excellent system for studying the forces that drive social evolution.

Unfortunately, ant researchers know very little about the evolutionary history of ponerine ants and their relationships to one another. This has prevented attempts at using them to understand ant social evolution. Chris is using DNA sequence data, morphological data and fossils to reconstruct ponerine phylogeny, estimate the timing of different events in ponerine evolution, infer how ponerines attained their current worldwide distribution, and improve the higher taxonomy of the group so that it reflects evolutionary relationships (which is currently not the case).

In addition, he is studying the ponerine genera Anochetus and Odontomachus in collaboration with Neil Tsutsui (UC Irvine), and Andy Suarez (University of Illinois) and others. These ants are known as trapjaw ants because they hunt prey using powerful strikes from their mandibles, which they open to 180° and shut with extreme speed and force (in fact, this is the fastest recorded movement of any animal). Chris is inferring a detailed phylogeny of these genera using molecular data, providing a framework for studying their remarkable behavior and morphology.

References

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalog of the Ants of the World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 71: 1-370.

Brady, S. G., T. R. Schultz, B. L. Fisher, and P. S. Ward. 2006. Evaluating alternative hypotheses for the evolution and diversification of ants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103:18172-18177.

Brown, W. L. 1976. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, Tribe Ponerini, Subtribe Odontomachiti. Section A. Introduction, Subtribal Characters. Genus Odontomachus. Studia Entomologica 19: 67-171.

Brown, W. L. 1978. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, Tribe Ponerini, Subtribe Odontomachiti. Section B. Genus Anochetus and Bibliography. Studia Entomologica 20: 549-638.

Gronenberg, W., J. Tautz and B. Holldobler. 1993. Fast trap jaws and giant neurons in the ant Odontomachus. Science 262: 561-563.

Holldobler, B. and E. O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.

Patek, S. N., J. E. Baio, B. L. Fisher, and A. V. Suarez. 2006. Multifunctionality and mechanical origins: Ballistic jaw propulsion in trap-jaw ants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(34): 12787-12792.

Learning Information

About This Page

This page is part of the project "New Strategies for Life Sciences Outreach in Arizona: Developing a Digital Library of Audio and Video Features in the Context of the Tree of Life Web Project" funded by the “Anyplace Access for Arizonans” Initiative under the University of Arizona Technology and Research Initiative Fund.

Chris A. Schmidt
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Chris A. Schmidt at

Page: Tree of Life Odontomachus: Amazing Mandibles! Authored by Chris A. Schmidt. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

 Treehouses are authored by students, teachers, science enthusiasts, or professional scientists. Anyone can sign up as a treehouse contributor and share their knowledge and enthusiasm about organisms. Treehouse contributions are checked for general accuracy and quality by teachers and ToL editors, but they are not usually reviewed by expert scientists. If you spot an error, please get in touch with the author or the teacher. For more information about quality control of Tree of Life content, see Status of Tree of Life Pages.

close box

This page is a treehouse that is attached to a branch of the Tree of Life.

Treehouses are ToL pages designed for children and the young at heart.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Odontomachus

Treehouse Content

articles & notes

Treehouses

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top