A large roach endeavored to escape by crossing the main front of the army. The creature made several powerful jumps, but each time it touched the ground ... its legs were grasped by the fearless ants.... In the end it fell ... and was instantly torn to bits and carried to the rear.... Another ant with the body of a wood roach was assisted by a worker who held the carrier's abdomen high in the air out of the way of her burden, all the way to the nest.
Howes (1919)
Family FORMICIDAE
From the known entomophagous habits of the lower ants (Wheeler, 1928), we wonder that there are not more records of ants feeding on cockroaches, because this act must occur frequently. Kirby and Spence (1822) stated that R. Kittoe had observed in Antigua that ants which nested in the roofs would seize a cockroach by the legs so it could not move, kill it, and carry it up to their nest. Hotchkiss (1874) observed ants kill cockroaches on shipboard. Cockroaches attracted to sugar in the pantry were killed and carried off by the ants. The destruction of cockroaches by army ants has been recorded by Bates (1863), Wallace (1891), Beebe (1917, 1919), Howes (1919), and others. Dead and mutilated specimens of Ischnoptera sp. [undoubtedly Parcoblatta americana (Gurney, personal communication, 1958)] are common in the nests of species of Formica in California (Mann, 1911).
Aphaenogaster picea Emery
Natural prey.—Ectobius pallidus, U.S.A., Massachusetts (Roth and Willis, 1957).
Camponotus pennsylvanicus (De Geer)
Common name.—Carpenter ant.
Natural prey.—Parcoblatta pensylvanica, U.S.A. (Rau, 1940): The ants entered traps set up to capture the cockroach and carried off about a dozen adults of both sexes.