Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Ecitoninae
Genus: Eciton
Species: Eciton burchelli

HABITAT Humid lowland forests from southern Mexico to northern South America
Mainly terrestrial, but may bivouac (temporarily nest) in trees as well as on the ground
Heavily forested areas preferred

NICHE Army ants help Euxenister beetles which live in the nest, travel with the bivouac, groom adult workers, and indiscriminately feed off booty and brood.
Several species of mite also call the army ant bivouac home
Antbirds follow the swarm and eat the small vertebrates and animals/insects killed by the swarms that are not taken (cleanup!)
Ithomiine butterflies feed on the droppings of antbirds and are seen flying over the swarm.
Eciton burchelli can be beneficial to humans in terms of removing agricultural and household insect pests.

DIET Purely carnivorous, arthropods
Predominant in wet season: Immature stages of wasps, other ants // dry season: cockroaches, crickets
Year-round, less often: tarantulas, scorpions, beetles, roaches, grasshoppers.
Small lizards, snakes, birds are often attacked and killed but are usually not brought back because they are too large. Army ants sting

RAIDING PATTERN Swarm raiders
Fan-shaped
Raid begins at daybreak and ends at dusk
Cooperation in raiding: When crossing through an open, exposed area soldiers (nearly blind but equipped with large menacing jaws) guard the edges of the group. Standing in rows, they’re ready to bite anything that interferes.
Crossing a stream, they link themselves together to form a floating bridge. The other ants cross the strem on the backs of their fellow ants.
Roles during raids: When the bivouac breaks in the morning, the pressure causes a mass flow in all directions. A raiding column goes along the path of least resistance, leaving the chemical substance to mark the trail (see cooperation/communication). There is no real leadership. When workers find themselves at front they will turn around and go back towards the group. However, ants behind immediately replace those ants and extend the march slightly before wheeling around and returning to the mass. In this way, the march is extended slowly.

PREDATORS Army ants don’t have an exact predator. Any moving animal is a threat and can generally be overtaken. The antbirds that do eat the ants sometimes eat them usually by mistake.
Some animals are able to avoid the ants through chemicals and other defenses, but are not predators in that they do not eat the ants

DIVISION OF ROLES
Queen: Single queen, lays a new cycle of eggs approximately every three weeks. Main job is to mate and lay eggs.
Largest ants (soldiers): defense, about one to two inches long (including the mandibles), mainly protect the queen
Medium: foragers
Small: Tend queen’s brood
The workers in the colonies are sterile females, the soldiers are males. Workers (the females) must feed the soldiers/males because their mandibles (used for carrying, tearing, digging) are so large.

MODE OF LIFE Independent: Do not rely on other animals to live, only as prey
Colonial: Between 150,000 and 750,000 ants are present in a colony

COOPERATION & COMMUNICATION
These ants form bivouacs (temporary camps in a more or less exposed position, generally between buttresses of forest trees/beneath fallen tree trunks/sheltered spots along trunks) by linking their legs and bodies together with their strong tarsal claws/hooks. They form a huge interlocking layer of chains and nets of their own bodies until the whole worker force becomes a solid cylindrical ellipsoidal mass up to a meter across. A single mother queen and thousands of immature ant forms are at the center of this mass to be protected. (For a very short period in the dry season, about 1000 males and several virgin queens are in the center as well.)
Army ants communicate primarily with chemical signals. During raiding, pheremones are released into the air to signal danger, food, or for recognition of a nest mate. Pheremones, left by wiping their abdomens along the ground as they walk, are also used during raids as trail markers. Chemicals are also used to signal for assistance, to control reproduction within the colony, sexual communication. Vibrations and tactile communication is also used, but not visual, since army ants are pretty much blind.

DUDE. VIDEOS AND STUFF. =D
Video of ant swarm
Rest of the videos