Killer ant

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Killer ant is a term to describe any of several species of ants that are predatory, attack en masse when their mounds are disturbed, and can kill animals many times their size, even deer if they are immobilized.

Name	Range	Comments
Velvet ants, family Mutillidae	USA, Canada	Velvet ants are popularly known as "cow killers", but this is a fanciful name; they cannot kill animals as large as cows. There are hundreds of species: two of the most well-known are Dasymutilla occidentalis in the eastern USA, and Dasymutilla magnifica, in the western USA. Note that velvet ants are not ants proper: that is, they are not members of the ant family Formicidae, but are wasps in the family Mutillidae. [1]
Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta	Americas, Southern China, Australia	Fire ants are aggressive and have a painful sting. A person typically encounters fire ants by inadvertently stepping into one of their mounds, which causes the ants to swarm up the person's legs, attacking en masse. The ants respond to pheromones that are released by the first ant to attack. The ants then swarm and immediately sting when any movement is sensed.
Argentine ant, Linepithema humile	Argentina, Southern Europe, Southern USA, California	Very small, attack mostly other ants. The main supercolony (Italy, Atlantic coast of Spain) is said to be the largest cooperating ant population in the World.
Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis	Worldwide	In February 2000, an invasion of Pharaoh ants terrorized office workers in Berlin, Germany.
Red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus	Western USA	Bright red myrmicine ants whose venom has the highest relative azoicity of any ants species. Images
Bulldog ants, genus Myrmecia	Australia	They are said to be repelled by yellow objects. Belonging to the subfamily Myrmeciinae, these are among the most primitive extant ants. All but one of the sixty or so species are found in Australia.
Bullet ants, genus Paraponera	From Nicaragua southward to the Amazon basin	Bullet ants, and their close relatives of the genus Dinoponera are New World ponerines.
Legionnaire ants, genus Polyergus	range?	Legionnaire ants are most interesting southern boreal obligate dulotes of the Formicinae subfamily. Their host is, like a similar convergent species, Formica sanguinea, ants of the Formica fusca group. Although absent from the British Isles, Polyergus rufescens is present on the continent, and many observations of its behaviour were made by Auguste-Henri Forel. Like the unrelated British-found parasite to Tetramorium caespitum, Strongylodus testaceus (first discovered in Britain by Horace Donisthorpe), the legionnaire ants display greatly adapted, strongly falcate mandibles, which they use for piercing the heads of F. fusca et. al. during raids.
Yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes	Christmas Island	They kill red crabs on Christmas Island, and generally destroy the ecosystem for the other 17 species of terrestrial crab found there, including the largest terrestrial invertebrate in the known world (the coconut crab).
New World Army ants, genus Eciton	South America, Southern Mexico	Army and Driver ants appear to be the most dangerous of the killer ants. Driver ants can reduce a tethered cow to polished bone in several weeks. A few cases of human deaths (inebriated or infant) have been reported. Reference The New World army ants have recently been separated from the Dorylinae.
Driver ants, genus Dorylus	The Old world, esp. West Africa and the Congo Basin	Unlike the army ants of the New World, Old World army ants have a functional sting, but rarely use it; this is more than compensated for by their razor-sharp, falcate mandibles. Dorylus spp. colonies also reach larger sizes than Eciton.