Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Social Insects pp 1–8Cite as

Marauder Ants (Carebara in Part)

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

Synonyms

Pheidologeton

The term marauder ant refers to the two species Carebara diversa and C. silenus, myrmicine ants until recently placed in their own genus, Pheidologeton. This is a monophyletic group of behaviorally and ecologically distinct ants [1]. The better-known species, C. diversa, is most common in disturbed habitats extending from India across Southeast Asia to southern China and Taiwan, while C. silenus resides in forests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. These species warrant attention because of their extreme physical castes and a remarkably flexible foraging strategy that includes finding food en masse, at a scale similar to many doryline army ants, with the collective foraging raids of marauder ants reaching into the tens of thousands of participants [2] (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Top: Ants within a swarm raid of Carebara silenus in an area about 20 cm wide. Bottom: A typical large earthworm being transported by Carebara diversa

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  1. Fischer, G., Azorsa, F., & Fisher, B. L. (2014). The ant genus Carebara Westwood (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): Synonymisation of Pheidologeton Mayer under Carebara, establishment and revision of the C. polita species group. ZooKeys, 438, 57–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Moffett, M. W. (1984). Swarm raiding in a myrmicine ant. Naturwissenschaften, 71, 588–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Moffett, M. W. (1988). Foraging dynamics in the group-hunting ant, Pheidologeton diversus. Journal of Insect Behavior, 1, 309–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Berghoff, S. M., Weissflog, A., Linsenmair, K. E., Hashim, R., & Maschwitz, U. (2002). Foraging of a hypogaeic army ant: A long neglected majority. Insectes Sociaux, 49, 133–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Moffett, M. W. (1987). Division of labor and diet in an extremely polymorphic ant Pheidologeton diversus. National Geographic Research, 3, 282–304.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Moffett, M. W. (1988). Cooperative food transport by an Asiatic ant, Pheidologeton diversus. National Geographic Research, 4, 386–394.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lanan, M. (2014). Spatiotemporal resource distribution and foraging strategies in ants (Hymenptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News, 20, 53–70.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Rettenmeyer, C. W. (1963). Behavioral studies of army ants. University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 44, 281–465.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Moffett, M. W. (1988). Foraging in the Malayan swarm-raiding ant, Pheidologeton silenus. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 81, 356–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Moffett, M. W. (1988). Nesting emigrations and colony foundation in two group-hunting myrmicine ants. In J. C. Trager (Ed.), Advances in myrmecology (pp. 355–370). Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Moffett, M. W. (1987). Sociobiology of the ants of the genus Pheidologeton. Ph.D. thesis. Organismic and evolutionary biology, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Moffett, M. W. (2010). Adventures among ants: A global safari with a cast of trillions. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Brady, S. G., Fisher, B. K., Schultz, T. R., & Ward, P. S. (2014). The rise of army ants and their relatives: Diversification of specialized predatory doryline ants. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 14, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kronauer, D. J., Schöning, C., Vilhelmsen, L. B., & Boomsma, J. J. (2007). A molecular phylogeny of Dorylus army ants provides evidence for multiple evolutionary transitions in foraging niche. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7, 56–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA

    Mark W. Moffett

Authors
  1. Mark W. Moffett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark W. Moffett .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the West Indies, Department of Life Sciences University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Christopher Starr

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Moffett, M.W. (2019). Marauder Ants (Carebara in Part). In: Starr, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_75-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_75-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90306-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90306-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation