Army Ants..

 As weaver ants build a nest in Malaysia, they must pull one leaf toward another. A long body – about a third of an inch – is a boon, as each ant grabs on to adjacent leaf edges with feet and jaws. If one body isn’t sufficient, the insects interlock to form chains.

 A Cosmophasis jumping spider (at left) has infiltrated a weaver nest in Australia using chemical mimicry. By eating weaver ant larvae, the spider can take on and emit the scent of a colony and then feed unnoticed among its prey. But the spider cannot use that colony’s scent to fool a different colony.

 A Myrmarachne jumping spider stalks a weaver ant (right). The spider so resembles the ant – which tastes foul to some animals – that the spider’s usual predators often pass it by.

Weaver nests can be spacious: This one in Cambodia is eight inches wide; others reach a foot or two. A colony can distribute the weight of a half million workers, equal to that of a large house cat, by maintaining upwards of a hundred nests spread over multiple trees.

 

Save the queen! If disturbed by an intruder, minor workers – the caste of ants that tends to her majesty – envelop the matriarch (in Australia) to protect her from harm. The queen is the grower of the super-organism, producing tens of millions of eggs over her life span of several years.

 

 With speed and sheer numbers, weaver ants can overwhelm and pin scorpions and other large prey. These hunters in Cambodia will carry the scorpion to the nest and tear off bits to feed the larvae, which need all the protein they can get.

 A roasted chicken dish in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, includes a tapenade of fish paste, garlic, and minced weaver ants – a delicacy in much of Asia and parts of Australia.

Weaver ants rear up aggressively at a looming photographer.

They can tear apart a well-armored African driver ant at least twice their size. Whatever the threat, weaver ants fight together: The first defenders stand tall and emit pheromones that draw their sisters to battle.

 A theridiid spider snags an ant (far right, green abdomen) with a silk line, then descends on a second line to claim its prize.

It’s the insect version of squeezing glue from a bottle. This adult weaver in Australia holds a silk-producing larva in its jaws, spreading the larva’s sticky secretions to bind leaves for the colony nest. Few animals match such intricate homemaking techniques.