User:Burklemore1/Sandbox 6

Oecophylla Temporal range: 47–0  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Eocene - Recent
Weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) major worker (India).
Weaver ant (Oecophylla longinoda) major worker (Tanzania)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Oecophyllini Emery, 1895
Genus:	Oecophylla Smith, 1860
Type species
Formica virescens (junior synonym of Oecophylla smaragdina)
Diversity[1]
2 extant species 13 extinct species
Oecophylla range map. Oecophylla longinoda in blue, Oecophylla smaragdina in red.[2]

Relationship with humans

In agriculture

Large colonies of Oecophylla weaver ants consume significant amounts of food, and workers continuously kill a variety of

Weaver ant husbandry is often practiced in Southeast Asia, where farmers provide shelter, food and construct ropes between trees populated with weaver ants in order to protect their colonies from potential competitors.[11]

Oecophylla colonies may not be entirely beneficial to the host plants. Studies indicate that the presence of Oecophylla colonies may also have negative effects on the performance of host plants by reducing fruit removal by mammals and birds and therefore reducing seed dispersal and by lowering the flower-visiting rate of flying insects including pollinators.^[12][13] Weaver ants also have an adverse effect on tree productivity by protecting sap feeding insects such as scale insects and leafhoppers from which they collect honeydew.^[13][14] By protecting these insects from predators they increase their population and increase the damage they cause to trees.^[15]

As food and medicine

Weaver ants are one of the most valued types of insects eaten by humans (entomophagy). In addition to being used as a biological control agent to increase plant production, weaver ants can be utilized directly as a protein and food source since the ants (especially the ant larvae) are edible for humans and high in protein and fatty acids.^[16] In some countries the weaver ant is a highly prized delicacy harvested in vast amounts and in this way contributing to local socioeconomics.^[17] In Northeastern Thailand the price of weaver ant larvae is twice the price of good quality beef and in a single Thai province ant larvae worth 620.000 USD are harvested every year.^[18][19] It has furthermore been shown that the harvest of weaver ants can be maintained while at the same time using the ants for biocontrol of pest insects in tropical plantations, since the queen larvae and pupae that are the primary target of harvest, are not vital for colony survival.^[20]

The larvae of weaver ants are also collected commercially as an expensive feed for insect eating birds in Indonesia and the worker ants are used in traditional medicine in e.g. India and China.^[21][22]

References