South America : Bolivia , Brazil , Venezuela , Guyana , Colombia , Peru , Suriname , Trinidad and Tobago , French Guiana , Ecuador [2] .
Medium-sized polymorphic ants, about 1 cm long (in working individuals, body lengths from 6.91 mm in small individuals to 17.8 mm in large soldiers ). They live in the branches and trunks of tropical trees. The color is light brown. The head is heart-shaped with long narrow mandibles bearing an apical fork of two teeth. The length of the scapus (SL) is from 0.94 to 2.77, the length of the mandibles (ML) is from 0.79 to 3.32 (head index (CI) is from 102 to 113, the mandibular index (MI) is from 55 to 88). Antennae 11-segmented, mandibular palpi of 5, and lower labial of 3 segments. Head length 1.44-4.06 mm, head width 1.58-4.17 mm. On the chest there are two or three pairs of protective spikes (the longest ones on the pronotum are slightly curved forward) [2] .
Stings
Mandibles quickly snap like trap-jaws , known among ants of the genera Odontomachus ( Ponerinae ), Myrmoteras ( Formicinae ), Strumigenys and other representatives of the tribe Dacetini , which demonstrate this feature of their convergent evolution. The grabbing of the victim occurs almost instantly (in a few milliseconds) after touching it with two trigger hairs on the front edge of the upper lip . This trap reflex is controlled by giant sensory and motor neurons in the labile neurometer, which are probably monosynaptic combined. The labral nerve connects to the subesophageal ganglion. The large occipital protrusions are almost completely filled with adductors (muscles that close the mandibles). They are attached to the back, lateral and ventral internal parts of the head and occupy about two thirds of the volume of the entire head capsule. These muscles consist of from about 300 to more than 1,000 tubular muscle fibers, depending on the head width of different castes (head width varies from 1.5 to 4 mm). The diameter of such fibers varies from 13 to 25 micrometers (an average of about 16 microns) [3] .
Larvae
Adult larvae of working individuals are polymorphic, have a length of 7 to 12 mm. The body shape is worm-shaped, stocky, without legs and eyes; the three thoracic segments and the first two abdominal are curved ventrally, but do not form the neck. The body is covered with numerous small hairs (length from 0.009 to 0.175 mm), curved or bifurcated at the end. Adult larvae of sexual individuals have a length of 12.3 to 12.9 mm. The number of hairs on the head of the larvae of sexual individuals is twice as large as that of the larvae of working ants [4] [5] .
Families of D. armigerum usually nest in the cavities of branches and trees previously drilled by tree bugs or other insects [2] . Ant colony polygynous (including several queens ) and polydomic (consisting of several interconnected anthills) can include up to 952,000 ants (whereas a maximum of 2,500 to 10,000 working individuals were previously reported; Wilson 1962) [1] [6] .
Foraging
Active predators attack live insects (flies, grasshoppers, caterpillars and adult butterflies, larvae of beetles and cicadas). Small ants with a head width of less than 2 mm outside their nests are not observed [7] .
Workers make visual hunts in the daytime, keeping their trap-shaped mandibles open 180 °. They are able to catch prey of various sizes, including a relatively large one, which they drag in groups of up to 6 ants. During hunting, ants use a sting; their poisonous glands contain a mixture of pyrazines [1] . With the help of group hunting and mobilization of tribesmen over short distances, workers can cover a wide range of arthropods, the largest prey can exceed the mass of the largest ants by 90 times [1] . Daceton armigerum foragers ambush tree branches. Ambush workers discover their prey using their vision, after which they make a lightning throw at the landing victim, grab it with their long trap-shaped upper jaws [1] .
Daceton armigerum working ants entering the foraging use trace pheromones extracted from the contents of the poisonous gland, which remain active for more than 7 days. The paths laid out by pheromones from the sternal glands are relatively short-lived, they serve as a set of fellow tribesmen to collect feed resources on the territory, while secretions from the pygidial glands attract fellow breeds to food finds at a close distance (up to 15 cm). Short-range mobilization is also carried out through visual signals [1] . Hunting is carried out in the daytime, but ants can be observed on the paths laid with the help of pheromones at night. That is, the time range of work outside the socket includes up to 24 hours [1] .
Sternal glands are found in the VI and VII abdominal segments. In addition, bio-experiments have shown that the contents of the mandibular glands cause anxiety behavior. When conducting trials with artificial trails marked with poisonous gland secretions from seven other myrmycin species, Daceton did not follow these trails. However, Atta leaf-cutting ants reacted to the pathways of the poisonous glands of the dacetons themselves, and the ants of the genus Solenopsis reacted to the secretions of the dyufur gland of dacetones [8] .
Trophobiosis
Trophobiosis (the use of other organisms for food purposes) was recorded during a visit by working ants to various semi-rigid-winged insects ( Coccidae , Pseudococcidae , Membracidae and Aethalionidae , Hemiptera ) [1] . Tree ants, living in large colonies on the branches and trunks of plants, feed not only by predation, but can use various food sources of plant origin, for example, such as extra-flowered nectaries , collecting paddy and secretions of sucking semi-winged insects. However, the observation of such ants is complicated by their habitat on tall trees [1] .
Fall from the trees
Ants with a planning flight , capable of controlling their direction when falling from a nest tree. At the same time, they do not fall directly down, but, making movements with parts of the body, land on the trunk of the same tree, from the crown of which they fall, like the ants Cephalotes atratus . If the vertical fall is unsuccessful, it is problematic to find the way back from the soil layer, since there are no pheromone traces of their colony [2] [9] .
