Template:Overview/Aenictus

Army ants that typically conduct raids against other ant genera, other insects such as wasps or termites, and, more rarely, other insects. Foraging raids undertaken by Aenictus occur both day and night, usually across the ground surface but occasionally also arboreally. During raids, numerous workers attack a single nest or small area, with several workers coordinating their efforts to carry large prey items back to the nest or bivouac. They also have a nomadic life style, alternating between a migratory phase in which nests are temporary bivouacs in sheltered places above the ground and a stationary phase where semi-permanent underground nests are formed. During the nomadic phase bivouacs move regularly, sometimes more than once a day when larvae require large amounts of food. Individual nests usually contain up to several thousand workers, although nest fragments containing only a few hundred workers are often encountered. Queens are highly specialised and look less like workers than in most ant species. They have greatly enlarged gasters and are termed dichthadiform. New colonies are formed by the division of existing colonies rather than by individual queens as in most ant species.