OBSERVATION OF A BULLET ANT (PARAPONERA CLAVATA) FORAGING ON A LIZARD (ANOLIS SP.)

Abstract

Consumption of vertebrates by ants may be an important part of nutrient turnover and ecosystem functioning, particularly in the tropics (Griffiths et al., 2018; Eubanks et al., 2019). As scavengers, ants have been observed to remove carrion at rates on par with all non-invertebrate scavengers (Romero et al., 2020), though their role in decomposition ecology remains largely understudied (Eubanks et al., 2019). As predators, ants can be an overlooked source of mortality for many terrestrial vertebrates (McCormick and Polis, 1982; Valdez et al., 2020), especially when their prey is at smaller or lessdefended (Murray et al., 2016; Bichinski, 2015) life stages. Bullet ants (Paraponera clavata Fabricius 1775) are omnivorous, flexible foragers: they are most frequently observed carrying nectar back to their nests, but will also scavenge larger carcasses and actively hunt small prey animals, mostly arthropods (Young and Hermann, 1980; Dyer, 2002; Romero et al., 2020). Paraponera clavata are known to occasionally attack and consume small vertebrates. However, these instances involved carcasses that were scavenged opportunistically (feeder mice, Romero et al., 2020), live animals experimentally presented to foraging ants (frogs, Fritz et al., 1981; Murray et al., 2016), or vertebrate parts being carried back to the nest (‘‘head of a small tree frog,’’ Young & Hermann, 1980). It is therefore unclear whether bullet ants commonly hunt small vertebrates, although Bichinski (2015) reported seeing P. clavata hunt bird nestlings. There is little reason to suppose they do not: many small frogs and lizards are approximately the same size as the ants or some of their invertebrate prey. Additionally, bullet ant venom affects both invertebrates and vertebrates (Johnson et al., 2017), and can be used to subdue or kill small vertebrate prey (Fritz et al., 1981; Murray et al., 2016) as well as defend the ant from larger animals.