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little creatures are every bit as tough and scary as they
look. They live in sometimes huge colonies within the trees
of tropical Australia and create large, oval nests from living
foliage. They do this by teams of ants pulling leaves close
together - looking rather like a living zipper - and then a single
ant, carrying one of the larvae, glues the edges together with
silk the larva spins.
Although the ants appear to favour
nectar over other food they are still aggressive hunters of small
animals. They are equally diligent when it comes to
defending their nests and will discourage or even kill intruders
with painful bites (they have no stings). This aggressive
behaviour and large colony size has prompted some scientists to
suggest their use as a biological control of some species of bugs
in tropical orchards.
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