Ant Battle on a Trumpet Vine Bloom

I was photographing some honey bees on the Trumpet Vine blooms and all the battles between the honey and bumble bees when I expected the bees to attack this Allegheny ant, All of a sudden this very tiny Ghost ant ran up to the larger ant and jumped on him as you see right here. This isn't the clearest shot but it did capture the initial attack. The next shot show the smaller Ghost ant running around the bigger ant's head and then from there big boy took control of the situation and by the last shot the little guy is no longer identifiable as an ant. What a stupid thing to do. I can't imagine what the little guy was thinking. Obviously he wasn't thinking at all.

The initial defensive move was to grab the smaller Ghost ant and curl the abdomen underneath himself apparently trying to sting the smaller one, all the while, holding the ant in his mandibles.

The Allegheny ant is tossing the Ghost ant up in the air with his front feet. Notice the how the back and middle legs are positioned for the battle.

As you see the shot before this one where the Allegheny ant was slinging the Ghost ant in the air and here the smaller one is flying thru the air so fast he is only momentary blur taken at 1000th of a second shutter speed.

Notice the mandibles spread wide apart as the Allegheny ant was crunching down on the little guy.

Now the Allegheny ant is holding the Ghost ant down and crunching even more. The mandibles are closed down on him.

The Allegheny ant is finishing off the Ghost ant and it's just about over now.

You can see here where the larger ant left the little guy in an indistinguishable heap of nothing. The sequence was no longer that 3-4 seconds long. I was shooting 10 frames a second and captured it all. Some weren't in great focus but most were.