Cephalotes is a broad genus of ants. They are heavily armoured – it makes you wonder just how formidalble they would look if we were the same size. The amazing thing about many of them is the head – used to plug a gap as it were. Above is an ant of the species
Cephalotes varians.
The ants live in trees in the forest areas of the new world tropics and the subtropics. Some Cephalotes species can even glide back to the tree if they are knocked from it. Most of them are what is known as polymorphic which means that they have various castes that have a specific use and purpose in the colony. Above is another example of
Cephalotes varians, also known as the turtle ant. We are afraid we cannot tell you for sure why this one has wings - perhaps when a new colony is being formed?
