Leptogenys kitteli

Found mainly on the floor of primary forest. The body is long and slender with a glossy, lacquer-black finish and a very smooth exoskeleton. This is a monomorphic ant with males but no distinct queen caste: it does not produce winged females, and instead the strongest individual earns the right to reproduce. Unusually for a ponerine, it attacks in groups and so can take down much larger insects; a worker that finds prey goes back to recruit reinforcements, and the group surrounds the prey, making sure it is fully paralysed before carrying it home. They rely heavily on scent, which makes them one of the few species that show the "death spiral": when they wander into a man-made environment with smooth ground and nothing to block or redirect them, they keep laying trail pheromone along the same path and circle until they die. They are also one of the few ants that make sound, hissing as a warning when disturbed.