Click to Enlarge Ants can defend themselves by biting, by injecting poison into an enemy from their tail, or by spraying a stinging liquid.   Crazy Critters by Jim Auckley illustrations by David Besenger This species of ant only looks crazy. Crazy ants are the most common ants in Missouri forests. Why are they called crazy? Jan Weaver, a scientist at the University of Missouri - Columbia, said crazy ants are usually seen running crazily over the surface of the ground That is how they got their name. The ants are actually searching for things to eat. Crazy ants (Paratrechina faisonensis), Weaver added, are scavengers. Generally they eat anything they can find, including dead insects. At times, crazy ants will eat live insects, especially those that are somehow disabled. She recalls seeing crazy ants attack a stunned horsefly. Within a couple of minutes, some 30 or 40 ants swarmed the fly. Weaver and her assistants have spent years studying the insects, spiders, mites and other insect-like creatures living among the leaves of an Ozark forest floor. They have found 46 species of ants in their samples. The study is part of a long project to examine how logging affects the plants, animals and nutrient cycles of a forest. Weaver studies other ants, too. Another common ant isn't "crazy." It knows how to catch food by stalking and pouncing. The species is called Smithistruma, and its favorite food is the springtail. Weaver says that springtails, which are wingless insects, usually avoid predators by leaping out of reach with a flick of their forklike tail. Smithistruma ants freeze when they see a springtail. They then open their jaws and walk slowly toward it. Once in range, they snap their jaws on the springtail before it can escape. All of the ants we see without wings are females. Ant colonies do produce males, but they live only for a short time, long enough to mate with the queen ant. Weaver said that once the males have mated, the worker ants, which are all females, stop feeding them and push them out of the nest. An ant colony begins with a single, winged female. She makes a nuptial flight and mates for the only time in her life. She then excavates a chamber and raises the first brood of what will become a colony. All the ants you see on the ground are not able to reproduce, Weaver said, but their gender is female. Not all ants build deep tunnels in the soil. Some species just excavate shallow tunnels in the leaves or just under the surface of the soil. Because the ants haven't spent a lot of energy building their nest, they can move easily to new places. Ants are important members of the life community of Missouri's Ozark forests. Earthworms are rare in these thin soils, so it is left to ants to mix the soil. As they dig their colonies, they bring mineral-rich soils to the surface and take organic materials underground. After crazy ants and Smithistruma ants, the most commonly found ant is the Aphaenogaster carolinensis. This ant collects seeds and takes them to its nest, where it and other ants crush and mix them with saliva. This forms a mush which feeds the colony. Ants themselves are food for a variety of creatures, including fish, birds, lizards and even other insects. Ants are not helpless, however. They can defend themselves from predators by biting (they have strong jaws), spraying a stinging liquid or injecting a poison from a stinger in their tail. Crazy or not, ants are important members of the insect community in a Missouri Ozark forest. The next time you are in the woods, brush back the leaves on the ground and take a look. There's a good chance you'll spot some crazy critters.