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Florida’s Formica archboldi ants are not to be taken lightly. According to Newsweek, a researcher from North Carolina recently found that these ants coat their bodies with a waxy substance to mimic the appearance of their prey, a type of trap-jaw ant in the Odontomachus genus. The predator then sprays its unsuspecting target with acid to paralyze it and drags it back to its underground home, where it dismembers the body, consuming everything except the skull.
The Florida ants’ habit of stacking heads in their nests has led to their chilling moniker: the “skull-collecting ant.” This peculiar behavior has been known since the 1950s, but scientists have only recently discovered how these ants manage to defeat trap-jaw ants, which are no slouches themselves (they can snap their jaws shut at speeds over 100 miles per hour).
Adrian Smith, a researcher and head of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, watched F. archboldi ants imitating trap-jaw ants at the chemical level by covering their bodies in the same waxy coating as their prey. Smith believes they are likely camouflaging themselves, but the full extent of their disguise remains uncertain.
The ants were also observed releasing formic acid from their abdomens to paralyze the trap-jaw ants. These recent discoveries were published in the journal Insectes Sociaux, and Smith even recorded the gruesome event on camera, which you can view in the video below.
Smith mentions that he has been intrigued by these ants—which are also found in parts of Alabama and Georgia—since his undergraduate days at Florida State.
“They’re one of the most badass ants I know of. That’s why I wanted to study them—they decorate their nests with skulls,” Smith told The Verge. “Many other ants do amazing things, but these are especially significant to me because they’re from Florida, and I’m from Florida."
