Paraponera clavata

Paraponera clavata, commonly known as the bullet ant, is a species of ant named for its extremely painful sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America. The specific epithet of the ant, clavata, means "club-shaped". The generic name, Paraponera, translates to "near-Ponera". Because of its fearsome reputation, the ant has several Native American, Spanish, and Portuguese local names in different geographical areas; perhaps the best-known of these is the Venezuelan nickname hormiga veinticuatro (the "24 ant" or "24-hour ant"), referring to the full day of pain that follows being stung; it can also refer to the time it takes to kill a human. In Brazil, the Portuguese names given by locals include formiga cabo verde, formigão, or formigão-preto (big black ant); Native American–derived names include tocandira, tocandira, and tocanquibira, from the Tupi–Guarani tuca-ndy, which translates to "the one wounding deeply". Other names by which it is called include chacha, cumanagata, munuri, siámña, and yolosa. In Costa Rica, P. clavata is known as bala, meaning "bullet". P. clavata also has several common names; it is most commonly known as the bullet ant because of the extreme pain it delivers following a sting, similar to that of getting shot. Other names are the "lesser giant hunting ant" and "conga ant". Paraponera clavata was first described by Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775, who named it Formica clavata in his Systema entomologiae. Fabricius listed the type locality as India, incorrectly, as these ants are only found in Central and South America. In 1804, P. clavata was transferred to the genus Ponera by the French zoologist Pierre André Latreille. The genus Paraponera was established by the British entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858, and P. clavata was designated as the type species by monotypy (the creation of a taxonomic group that includes only a single taxon). In his book, Smith synonymised multiple taxa under Paraponera clavata, including Formica armata, Formica spininoda, Ponera tarsalis, and Ponera clavata.