Oecophylla longinoda, a species of weaver ant found in the forested regions of tropical Africa. Weaver ants are arboreal and known for their unique nest building behaviour, in which workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk. These highly territorial ants live in colonies that can consist of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and contain more than half a million workers. Like many other ant species, weaver ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects.Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim