Workers are commonly 16–20 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Plectroctena mandibularis
A specialist ant capable of wrestling a heavily armoured millipede many times its own mass.
About this species
Ringbumb millipide muncher
Plectroctena mandibularisF. Smith, 1858
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Plectroctena mandibularis is a large African ponerine ant specialised for hunting millipedes. Colonies are small and deep-nesting, but individual workers tackle prey that appears vastly oversized for a solitary hunter.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Formicidae · Ponerinae · Plectroctena
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Southern and eastern AfricaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Southern and eastern Africa
Savannah and woodland soils, with nests often deep beneath the surface.
Workers forage singly, mainly on the ground and beneath litter.
Primarily adult millipedes.
Usually small colonies, often fewer than 50 workers.
What makes this species remarkable?
A lone worker can seize and subdue a large adult millipede despite the prey’s armour, chemical defences and body mass many times greater than the ant’s.
When prey is too heavy for one ant, workers may link into pulling chains, turning several bodies into a coordinated winch that drags the millipede home.
The nest is an underground fortress: chambers can lie more than half a metre deep, while the small colony remains almost invisible above ground apart from excavated soil.
Sources and scientific references
More photographs
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