---
title: "What the sources say about the Asian Weaver Ant | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "49 claims from the Asian Weaver Ant profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/asian-weaver-ant/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Asian Weaver Ant (*Oecophylla smaragdina*)

> 49 claims from the Asian Weaver Ant profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Asian Weaver Ant](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/asian-weaver-ant/)

## Chapuisat & Keller (2002). Division of labour influences the rate of ageing in weaver ant workers. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2002.1962

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Workers come in two distinct sizes | The worker size was clearly bimodal in our sample |
| In colonies collected in Australia, major workers were about 8 millimetres long and weighed about 3 milligrams dried; minor workers were about 4.5 millimetres and weighed a third as much | The major workers were ca . 8.0 mm long ... The minor workers were ca . 4.5 mm long ... The dry weight of the major workers was about three times that of the minor workers (mean ± s.d. = 3.0 ± 1.0 mg for the majors, n = 10, and 1.0 ± 0.1 mg for the minors (note: colonies collected in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.) |
| Defending the colony is dangerous work, and researchers consider it very likely that majors die from outside causes far more often than minors | Colony defence and foraging are dangerous tasks associated with high mortality in ants ... it is very likely that the major workers suffer from much higher rates of extrinsic mortality than the minor workers do (note: extrinsic mortality = death from outside causes; the paper says field mortality rates have not been measured, hence "very likely".) |
| In a lab study of three colonies, every worker had died within 43 weeks | Three colonies of O. smaragdina were collected ... and shipped by plane to La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia ... All workers died within 43 weeks |
| minors had a significantly higher chance of survival than majors, though the study could not say by how much | In captivity, the minor workers had a significantly higher survival probability than the major workers ... Our study does not allow a precise determination of the difference in the lifespan between the minor and major workers |

## Sangma & Prasad (2021). Population and Nesting Behaviour of Weaver Ants, Oecophylla smaragdina from Meghalaya, India. Sociobiology.

https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v68i4.7204

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| pull leaves together, even forming living chains | While building the nest, the worker ants pull the leaves and glue them using their larvae silk. In the case of leaves that are far, a group of worker ants move towards the target leaves and form the ants chain to pull towards the nest site by shortening the chain by one ant at a time until the leaves are ... close enough to be glued together (note: tagline, first half. "..." skips a running-header line break the PDF extraction inserted mid-sentence; chains are formed when the leaves are far, hence "even".) |
| then glue them with silk squeezed from their own larvae | The last instar larvae are used for gluing in which the worker ant squeezes the larvae gently, and the silk is produced (note: tagline, second half.) |
| Arboreal architects | Weaver ants ( Oecophylla sp.) are arboreal, eusocial insects (note: tagline opening; the genus statement covers this species.) |
| Insects, grubs and earthworms | the ants feed on different types of insects like cricket, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies, flies, fly larvae, beetle grubs, earthworms, and sometimes dead rodents or birds (note: stats.diet, first half; observed in Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya, India.) |
| while other workers glue the leaves with silk squeezed from their own larvae | another worker ant comes along with the larva in its mandible to glue the leaves ... The last instar larvae are used for gluing in which the worker ant squeezes the larvae gently, and the silk is produced (note: stats.superpower, second half.) |
| Trees across tropical Asia into northern Australia, nesting in their leaves | O. smaragdina (Fabricius), distributed in tropical Asia to Northern Australia and O. longinoda (Latreille) distributed in Africa (Cole & Jones, 1948). Weaver ants exhibit a unique strategy of nest building on the tree using the leaves for nest construction (note: stats.habitat.) |
| Not Evaluated | O. smaragdina (Fabricius), distributed in tropical Asia to Northern Australia (note: stats.conservationStatus. No reference in the profile states a Red List status; this anchors the species name only. GBIF's copy of the Red List returns NOT_EVALUATED with no IUCN taxon id for Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775), usage key 1317388, checked 2026-09-17, and Crossref has no 10.2305 assessment DOI for the name. The species has no Red List assessment; precedent suffolk-sheep and clydesdale-horse.) |
| builds its nest from leaves still on the tree, glued together with silk from its own larvae | Weaver ants exhibit a unique strategy of nest building on the tree using the leaves for nest construction (note: intro; the silk half is the next claim's quote.) |
| glued together with silk from its own larvae | While building the nest, the worker ants pull the leaves and glue them using their larvae silk |
| A few workers bite a leaf edge, pull it closer, and hold on | Few worker ants start to bite the leaves, pull them closer, and hold them until another worker ant comes along with the larva in its mandible to glue the leaves |
| If the target leaf is far away, a group of workers forms a chain and pulls it toward the nest, shortening the chain one ant at a time until the leaves are close enough to glue | In the case of leaves that are far, a group of worker ants move towards the target leaves and form the ants chain to pull towards the nest site by shortening the chain by one ant at a time until the leaves are ... close enough to be glued together (note: "..." skips a running-header line break the PDF extraction inserted mid-sentence.) |
| Then another worker arrives carrying a larva in its final growth stage (the last instar) in its jaws. It gently squeezes the larva, which produces silk, and uses that silk to glue the leaves together. | another worker ant comes along with the larva in its mandible to glue the leaves ... The last instar larvae are used for gluing in which the worker ant squeezes the larvae gently, and the silk is produced (note: "final growth stage" glosses "last instar" for the audience.) |
| The species ranges across tropical Asia into northern Australia | O. smaragdina (Fabricius), distributed in tropical Asia to Northern Australia |
| In Meghalaya, India, they were seen eating insects, grubs, earthworms and sometimes dead rodents or birds | It was observed that the ants feed on different types of insects like cricket, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies, flies, fly larvae, beetle grubs, earthworms, and sometimes dead rodents or birds (note: Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya, India.) |
| A study of 15 nests in Meghalaya counted an average of 4,316 queens, workers, larvae and pupae per nest | A total of 15 nests of these weaver ants were collected for further study ... The number of queens, worker ants, larvae, and pupae were recorded to know the population in a nest ... Mean 9483.53 6.11 2.19 20.80 17.73 4316.33 (note: Table 1 (15 nests, Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya, India): the Population column's mean is 4316.33, rounded to 4,316; population = queens + workers + larvae + pupae per the methods.) |
| Workers also clean the nest with venom-gland secretions (formic acid) to ward off bacterial and fungal infections | They also clean the nest by applying venom gland secretions (formic acid) to avoid bacterial and fungal infections (note: Sangma & Prasad's introduction, citing Tragust 2016.) |
| Workers bite a leaf edge, pull it closer, and hold it there. | Few worker ants start to bite the leaves, pull them closer, and hold them until another worker ant comes along with the larva in its mandible to glue the leaves (note: faq 1.) |
| When the target leaf is far away, a group of workers forms a chain and pulls it toward the nest, shortening the chain one ant at a time until the leaves are close enough to be glued together. | In the case of leaves that are far, a group of worker ants move towards the target leaves and form the ants chain to pull towards the nest site by shortening the chain by one ant at a time until the leaves are ... close enough to be glued together (note: faq 1.) |
| While other workers hold the leaves, a worker brings a larva in its final growth stage (the last instar) in its jaws and gently squeezes it, which makes the larva produce silk. The worker uses that silk to glue the leaves together. | Few worker ants start to bite the leaves, pull them closer, and hold them until another worker ant comes along with the larva in its mandible to glue the leaves (Fig 7). The last instar larvae are used for gluing in which the worker ant squeezes the larvae gently, and the silk is produced (note: faq 2.) |
| dangerLevel: Low | These weaver ants are also used as medicine, food and fish bait by the indigenous people in Meghalaya (note: task #564; Low is "Effectively harmless to people". No cached source reports an injury to a person; people collect the nests by hand to eat. The capability is an 8 mm ant (division-2002) that bites and applies formic acid from its venom gland (sangma-2021).) |

## Stewardson et al. (2025). Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants. Current Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.07.038

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Pulling teams in which each ant's average force nearly doubles as the team grows | The average force contribution per individual almost doubled as team size increased (note: stats.superpower, first half.) |
| On average, each ant pulls harder in a bigger team. | The average force contribution per individual almost doubled as team size increased (note: blockquote lead-in: the average force per individual.) |
| In human and animal teams, each member's effort can drop as the team grows, an effect known as the Ringelmann effect | in both human and non-human animal teams, the effort contributed by each member may, in fact, decrease as team size grows. This counterintuitive phenomenon, known as the Ringelmann effect |
| Weaver ant pulling teams show the opposite: the average force each ant contributed nearly doubled as team size increased | The average force contribution per individual almost doubled as team size increased, demonstrating that weaver ants not only avoid the Ringelmann effect but achieve the opposite |
| The researchers propose a "force ratchet," where some ants actively pull and the force they generate is stored in chains of "passive resisters." | We propose that this superefficiency is facilitated by a division of labor within teams: "active pullers" work together to generate a pulling force that is stored in chains of "passive resisters," which capitalize on the remarkable frictional strength of weaver ant attachment organs; weaver ant teams thereby act as a "force ratchet." |
| Those resisters rely on the remarkable grip of their feet | passive resisters," which capitalize on the remarkable frictional strength of weaver ant attachment organs (note: "grip" for frictional strength; "feet" for attachment organs, which sit at the tips of the legs (biomechanics-2001: pretarsal adhesive organ).) |
| No, the opposite. | weaver ants not only avoid the Ringelmann effect but achieve the opposite (note: faq 3.) |
| In human and animal teams, each member's effort can drop as the team grows, an effect known as the Ringelmann effect, but in weaver ants the average pulling force per ant nearly doubled as teams got bigger. | in both human and non-human animal teams, the effort contributed by each member may, in fact, decrease as team size grows. This counterintuitive phenomenon, known as the Ringelmann effect ... The average force contribution per individual almost doubled as team size increased (note: faq 3.) |
| Researchers propose that some ants actively pull while the force they generate is stored in chains of passive resisters, and the team thereby acts as a force ratchet. | We propose that this superefficiency is facilitated by a division of labor within teams: "active pullers" work together to generate a pulling force that is stored in chains of "passive resisters," which capitalize on the remarkable frictional strength of weaver ant attachment organs; weaver ant teams thereby act as a "force ratchet." (note: faq 3.) |
| for an ant whose teams interlock, the average force each individual contributes almost doubling as the team grows | The average force contribution per individual almost doubled as team size increased (note: vibe.reason, task #564; replaces "sunny tropical precision", a place and a mood. Band, song, genre and the music description are unchanged.) |

## Federle et al. (2001). Biomechanics of the movable pretarsal adhesive organ in ants and bees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.111139298

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Between the claws sits a flexible pad called an arolium, which unfolds and folds back with every step when the ants run upside down on a smooth surface | Hymenoptera attach to smooth surfaces with a flexible pad, the arolium, between the claws. Here we investigate its movement in Asian weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) and honeybees (Apis mellifera). When ants run upside down on a smooth surface, the arolium is unfolded and folded back with each step |
| In severed weaver ant legs, raising the pressure of the ant's blood (hemolymph) by just 15 kilopascals was enough to inflate the pad to full size | In severed legs of O. smaragdina ants, an increase in hemolymph pressure of 15 kPa was sufficient to inflate the arolium to its full size (note: hemolymph is insect blood; 15 kPa = 15 kilopascals.) |

## Kamhi et al. (2015). Polymorphism and division of labour in a socially complex ant: neuromodulation of aggression in the Australian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0704

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Majors aggressively defend the colony's treetop territory, while minors nurse the brood | larger major workers aggressively defend arboreal territories, whereas smaller minors nurse brood |
| Majors' brains also hold more octopamine, a brain chemical that helps control aggression; switching its action in the lab reversed each size's usual aggression level. | octopamine (OA) modulates worker size-related aggression in O. smaragdina. We found that the brains of majors had significantly higher titres of OA than those of minors ... Pharmacological manipulations that effectively switched OA action in major and minor worker brains reversed levels of aggression characteristic of each worker size class |
| tags: social-colony | larger major workers aggressively defend arboreal territories, whereas smaller minors nurse brood (note: task #564; replaces social. The definition asks for a colony with a strict division of labor and collective defense, which is what the two worker castes are; division-2002 is titled for that division of labour.) |

## Babu & Patil (2021). Antennal lobe organisation in ant, Oecophylla smaragdina: A Golgi study. Journal of Biosciences.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-021-00233-8

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| one study counted 220 of the small structures called glomeruli in a major worker's smell centre, against 140 in a minor's | Antennal lobes (AL) are the primary olfactory centres of the insect brain ... We could count 220 glomeruli in the AL of the major worker, whereas only 140 glomeruli were located in AL of minor workers (note: AL = antennal lobe, the brain's primary olfactory (smell) centre.) |
| Their brains differ too | AL volume, total number of glomeruli and its spatial organisation were different in the castes of Oecophylla smaragdina |

## Dlussky, Wappler & Wedmann (2008). New Middle Eocene Formicid Species from Germany and the Evolution of Weaver Ants. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

https://doi.org/10.4202/app.2008.0406

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| two fossil Oecophylla species from Germany, about 47 and 43 million years old, are among its oldest records, and workers of the younger one already show the first adaptations for moving through a forest canopy | Oecophylla longiceps Dlussky sp. nov. are found in the middle Eocene (about 47 Ma) of Grube Messel, Germany. Males, gynes and two workers of O. eckfeldiana Dlussky sp. nov. are recorded from the middle Eocene (about 43 Ma) of Eckfeld maar, Germany. The two new species are among the oldest records of the extant genus Oecophylla . First adaptations for moving in the forest canopy are present in the workers of O. eckfeldiana |
| The genus is old | The two new species are among the oldest records of the extant genus Oecophylla |

## Blüthgen & Fiedler (2002). Interactions between weaver ants Oecophylla smaragdina, homopterans, trees and lianas in an Australian rain forest canopy. Journal of Animal Ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.2002.00647.x

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| plus honeydew from the scale insects, treehoppers, aphids and mealybugs they tend | Most commonly attended trophobionts by O. smaragdina at this study site were Coccidae (Coccus sp., Milviscutulus sp.) and Membracidae (Sextius sp.), followed by Toxoptera aurantii (Aphidae), Planococcus citri (Pseudococcidae) (note: stats.diet, second half. Coccidae = scale insects, Membracidae = treehoppers, Toxoptera aurantii = an aphid, Planococcus citri = a mealybug (Pseudococcidae). Study site: rain forest canopy, northern Queensland, Australia; the abstract calls them honeydew-producing trophobionts.) |
| In an Australian rainforest canopy, workers mostly tended scale insects and treehoppers, then aphids and mealybugs, for their honeydew | honeydew‐producing trophobionts (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha, Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) were studied in a rain forest canopy in Northern Queensland, Australia. Most commonly attended trophobionts by O. smaragdina at this study site were Coccidae (Coccus sp., Milviscutulus sp.) and Membracidae (Sextius sp.), followed by Toxoptera aurantii (Aphidae), Planococcus citri (Pseudococcidae) (note: Coccidae = scale insects, Membracidae = treehoppers, Toxoptera aurantii = an aphid, Planococcus citri = a mealybug (Pseudococcidae). Study site: rain forest canopy, northern Queensland, Australia; the abstract calls them honeydew-producing trophobionts.) |
| tags: rainforest | were studied in a rain forest canopy in Northern Queensland, Australia (note: task #564; kept. regulation-1992 also has the species dominant at "forest and savanna" bait sites in the Australian seasonal tropics, but the savanna tag's definition (enduring prolonged dry seasons and following migrating herbivore herds) describes a large grazing mammal, not an arboreal ant, so it was not added.) |

## Blüthgen, Gebauer & Fiedler (2003). Disentangling a rainforest food web using stable isotopes: dietary diversity in a species-rich ant community. Oecologia.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1347-8

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| tags: omnivore | Colonies of the dominant weaver-ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) had significantly lower delta(15)N in mature forests (where preferred honeydew and nectar sources are abundant) than in open secondary vegetation (note: task #564; replaces carnivore, whose definition is a diet centred on animal flesh. The same paper puts ant species "in a continuum between largely herbivorous and purely predacious taxa, with a high degree of omnivory"; the prey side is sangma-2021's insects, grubs, earthworms and dead rodents or birds.) |

## Andersen (1992). Regulation of "Momentary" Diversity by Dominant Species in Exceptionally Rich Ant Communities of the Australian Seasonal Tropics. The American Naturalist.

https://doi.org/10.1086/285419

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| At tuna baits in northern Australian forest and savanna, they and Iridomyrmex ants were the dominant species, monopolizing more than 80 percent of the baits where they turned up | Iridomyrmex spp. and Oecophylla smaragdina were dominant ants at the forest and savanna sites studied: they occurred at a large proportion (35%-85%) of tuna baits, they dominated and monopolized most (>80%) of the baits at which they occurred (note: sites in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia (title).) |