# Eciton

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Genus of ants

Eciton E. burchellii Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Clade: Pancrustacea Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Family: Formicidae Subfamily: Dorylinae Genus: Eciton Latreille, 1804 Type species Formica hamata[1] Diversity[2] 12 species Synonyms Camptognatha Gray, 1832 Holopone Santschi, 1925 Mayromyrmex Ashmead, 1905

***Eciton*** is a [New World](/source/New_World) [army ant](/source/Army_ant) [genus](/source/Genus) that contains the most familiar [species](/source/Species) of army ants. The most predominant and well-known species is *[Eciton burchellii](/source/Eciton_burchellii)*, which is also more commonly known as "Balichana" in the Colombian Caribbean Coast, but also as the army ant and is considered the [type species](/source/Type_species).

*[Eciton burchellii](/source/Eciton_burchellii)* and *[Eciton hamatum](/source/Eciton_hamatum)* are the most visible and best studied of the New World army ants because they forage above ground and during the day, in enormous raiding swarms. Their range stretches from southern [Mexico](/source/Mexico) to the northern part of [Argentina](/source/Argentina).[3]

## Life cycle

*[E. burchellii](/source/Eciton_burchellii)* with larvae of a raided wasp nest

A trail of foraging *E. burchellii*

*Eciton* army ants have a bi-phasic lifestyle in which they alternate between a nomadic phase and a [statary](/source/Statary) phase. In the statary phase, which lasts about three weeks, the ants remain in the same location every night. They arrange their own living bodies into a nest, protecting the queen and her eggs in the middle. Such a temporary home is called a "[bivouac](/source/Bivouac_(ants))". In the nomadic phase the ants move their entire [colony](/source/Ant_colony) to a new location nearly every night for about two weeks on end. During said phase, the queen does not lay eggs.[4]

When the ants enter the statary phase, the queen's body swells massively and she lays as many as 80,000 eggs in less than a week. While the eggs mature, the ants swarm with less frequency and intensity. When the eggs hatch, the excitement caused by the increased activity of the [larvae](/source/Larva) causes the colony to enter the nomadic phase. The colony swarms much more intensely and does so nearly every day, and the ants move to a new location nearly every night. After two weeks, around the time when the larvae begin to [pupate](/source/Pupa), the colony again enters the statary phase, and the cycle begins anew.[5]

Because of the regularity and intensity of *E. burchelli* and *E. hamatum* swarms, many insect and bird species have evolved complex relationships with these ants. There are [conopid](/source/Conopidae) flies (the entire genus *[Stylogaster](/source/Stylogaster)*) that are obligate associates of army ant raids, and females lay their eggs on insects (mostly [crickets](/source/Crickets) and [roaches](/source/Cockroach)) flushed into the open by the ants, and there are also some [tachinid](/source/Tachinidae) flies that are somewhat similar in behavior. There are [ant-mimicking](/source/Ant_mimicry) [staphylinid beetles](/source/Rove_beetle), shaped like the ants they follow, that run with the swarm, some of them preying on stragglers or other insects injured or flushed by army-ant activity, though most of these are [inquilines](/source/Inquiline) in the ant nest; these and other insects sometimes spend their entire lives hidden in *Eciton* colonies, often mimicking the ants or their larvae. Many species of birds — mostly [cuckoos](/source/Cuckoo), [woodcreepers](/source/Woodcreeper), [tanagers](/source/Tanager), and [antbirds](/source/Antbird) — feed near the swarms. About 50 of the approximately 200 species of antbirds specialize in preying on insects fleeing the ants, getting up to half their food this way. Some of these birds actively check army-ant bivouacs each morning and follow the foraging trail to the swarm front, where they take positions based on their species' relations in a dominance hierarchy. A swarm may be attended by as many as 25 birds of one or two "professional" species and individual birds of as many as 30 other species. There are even butterflies (esp. the family [Hesperiidae](/source/Hesperiidae)) that feed almost exclusively on the [feces](/source/Feces) of these bird species.[6]

## Parasites

The [mite](/source/Mite) *[Trichocylliba](/source/Trichocylliba) [crinita](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trichocylliba_crinita&action=edit&redlink=1)* (Elzinga & Rettenmeyer, 1975) ([Mesostigmata](/source/Mesostigmata): [Uropodidae](/source/Uropodidae)) was found on the jaws of the species *[Eciton dulcium](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_dulcium&action=edit&redlink=1)*, and nowhere else.[7]

## Species

- *[Eciton burchellii](/source/Eciton_burchellii)* (Westwood, 1842)

- *[Eciton drepanophorum](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_drepanophorum&action=edit&redlink=1)* Smith, 1858

- *[Eciton dulcium](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_dulcium&action=edit&redlink=1)* Forel, 1912

- *[Eciton hamatum](/source/Eciton_hamatum)* (Fabricius, 1782)

- *[Eciton jansoni](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_jansoni&action=edit&redlink=1)* Forel, 1912

- *[Eciton lucanoides](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_lucanoides&action=edit&redlink=1)* Emery, 1894

- *[Eciton mexicanum](/source/Eciton_mexicanum)* Roger, 1863

- *[Eciton quadriglume](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_quadriglume&action=edit&redlink=1)* (Haliday, 1836)

- *[Eciton rapax](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_rapax&action=edit&redlink=1)* Smith, 1855

- *[Eciton setigaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_setigaster&action=edit&redlink=1)* Borgmeier, 1953

- *[Eciton uncinatum](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eciton_uncinatum&action=edit&redlink=1)* Borgmeier, 1953

- *[Eciton vagans](/source/Eciton_vagans)* (Olivier, 1792)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-AWEciton_1-0)** ["Genus: *Eciton*"](http://www.antweb.org/description.do?name=Eciton&rank=genus&project=allantwebants). *antweb.org*. [AntWeb](/source/AntWeb). Retrieved 13 October 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-AntCat_2-0)** [Bolton, B.](/source/Barry_Bolton) (2014). ["*Eciton*"](https://antcat.org/catalog/429459). *AntCat*. Retrieved 17 July 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Pérez-Espona, Sílvia (22 March 2021). ["Eciton Army Ants—Umbrella Species for Conservation in Neotropical Forests"](https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fd13030136). *Diversity*. **13** (3): 136. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2021Diver..13..136P](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021Diver..13..136P). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.3390/d13030136](https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fd13030136). [hdl](/source/Hdl_(identifier)):[20.500.11820/be179574-8ff7-4531-b575-8ebecc801e3d](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11820%2Fbe179574-8ff7-4531-b575-8ebecc801e3d).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-o781_4-0)** ["The hidden big predators of the Neotropics: The behaviour, diet, andimpact of New World army ants (Ecitoninae)"](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/521176e2e4b07172002a14d4/t/531636aae4b035ad0332a8ec/1393964714488/Powell+and+Baker+2008+ENG). Retrieved 2024-06-12.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Schneirla, 1971[*[page needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources)*]

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Austin, CT, J. P. Brock, and O. HH Mielke. 1993. Ants, birds, and skippers. Tropical Lepidoptera, 4 (Suppl. 2): 1-11

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Picture](http://www.lib.uconn.edu/about/exhibits/naturex3/ant.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20050826023717/http://www.lib.uconn.edu/about/exhibits/naturex3/ant.htm) 2005-08-26 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) (hairy brown spheres are the mites)

- Schneirla, T.C. (1971). H. R. Topoff (ed.). [*Army ants. A study in social organization*](https://archive.org/details/armyantsstudyins0000schn). San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7167-0933-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7167-0933-3).

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Eciton](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Eciton).

- [Tree of Life - Eciton](http://tolweb.org/Eciton/22637)

- [Discover Life - Formicidae: Eciton](http://stri.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=eciton)

- [*Eciton* of Costa Rica](https://archive.today/20121210112744/http://www.evergreen.edu/Ants/Genera/eciton/)

Taxon identifiers Eciton Wikidata: Q1932529 Wikispecies: Eciton ADW: Eciton BOLD: 7657 CoL: 49RK EoL: 32655 GBIF: 1319393 iNaturalist: 126834 Insecta.pro: 120918 IRMNG: 1208953 ITIS: 573943 NCBI: 213865 Open Tree of Life: 912685 Plazi: 7BB4368C-7786-245C-4FA3-91E167DD46FF

Authority control databases: National Israel

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