South and Southeast Asia, extending to southern China, the Philippines and parts of Indonesia
Fine-art photographic collection
Polyrhachis dives
A weaver ant that carries its own larvae like silk dispensers to stitch a nest together.
About this species
Polyrhachis divesSmith, 1857
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Polyrhachis dives is a widespread Asian spiny ant that constructs conspicuous carton-and-silk nests. Workers manipulate mature larvae so that larval silk binds leaves and plant fragments into protected chambers.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Formicidae · Polyrhachis
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
South and Southeast Asia, extending to southern China, the Philippines and parts of IndonesiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Forest edge, scrub, gardens and plantations with shrubs or trees suitable for woven nests.
Workers forage day and night according to temperature and food availability.
Sugary liquids, honeydew and animal prey.
Highly social and often polygynous, with colonies occupying several connected nests.
What makes this species remarkable?
Workers hold a silk-producing larva in their jaws and move it back and forth like a living glue gun to stitch leaves and carton together.
A single colony may contain dozens of queens and occupy multiple nests linked by trails, creating a distributed settlement rather than one nest.
The woven silk architecture does more than hold walls together: experiments show that it also contributes to resistance against microbes and disease.