A river of ants
A colony on the move pours across the ground in a column that can hold millions of ants.
The savanna · Bees, wasps and ants
Driver ants
Dorylus
Dark red-brown ants with large heads and curved jaws, marching in a dense column.
- Size
- Workers 0.5 to 1.5cm; queen up to 5cm
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Forest and savanna across central and East Africa
March after you in a column. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Driver ants
Good to know
Six things about the driver ants
They cannot see
The workers have no eyes. They find their way by touch and by scent.
Jaws that will not let go
A soldier's bite holds so firmly that people have used the jaws to close wounds.
The biggest ant there is
The queen is the largest ant in the world, and can lay more than a million eggs in a month.
Free pest control
When a column passes through a village, people step aside. The ants clear out cockroaches, rats and snakes.
Sausage flies
The winged males are so large and odd that people call them sausage flies.
The real thing
Photos of the driver ants
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
After rain, look for a dark line across a path with big-headed soldiers standing guard along the edges, jaws raised.
How to help
Step over the column, not on it. The ants are only passing through, and will be gone by tomorrow.
Keep going