Army Ants as the Creators of Worlds?
Army ants have a reputation for annihilating everything in their path as they march through the jungle.
But the most complete study of its kind has found that army ants are creators of whole worlds, not destroyers.
More than 300 species, ranging from birds to tiny mites, depend in part on a single species of army ant for their survival, scientists have discovered.
That means army ants support a greater number of other life forms than any other known species.
This revelation about army ants is the culmination of more than 50 years of scientific research into their behaviour conducted by naturalist Carl Rettenmeyer and his wife Marian, based at the University of Connecticut, US.
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