Bullet Ant

The bullet ant is the largest ant most people will ever see in person — workers reach 18–25 mm, with a glossy black-brown body and a sting that has earned its own entry in scientific literature. Its venom contains poneratoxin, a neurotoxin that disrupts voltage-gated sodium channels and produces what Justin Schmidt of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index described as 'pure, intense, brilliant pain — like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.' Colonies of a few hundred to a few thousand workers nest at the bases of large trees throughout the lowland rainforests of Central and South America. The Sateré-Mawé of Brazil incorporate the ant into a manhood ritual: hundreds of bullet ants are sedated, woven into a glove with stingers facing inward, and worn by the initiate for ten minutes. The ritual is repeated twenty times across years. Pain lasts up to a full day per session. Initiates rarely speak of it the same way twice.