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Bullet Ant — printable fact sheet
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Bullet Ant
Paraponera clavata
The bullet ant is named for a sting that people describe as being shot. It sits at the very top of the Schmidt sting pain index, and Justin Schmidt's own description — pure, intense, brilliant pain, like walking over flaming charcoal with a rusty nail in your heel — is the scale…
Did you know?
- The pain from a bullet ant sting is so severe that it's been compared to being shot, which is how the ant got its common name.
- Its sting tops the Schmidt pain index at the maximum rating — pain that comes in waves for up to 24 hours. The venom, poneratoxin, jams the sodium channels nerves use to reset, so they simply keep firing. Sateré-Mawé initiation rites require wearing gloves full of bullet ants, stingers inward, repeatedly. Despite this it is not aggressive, and warns first by stridulating and releasing a foul smell.
What I learned
Draw the bullet ant
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