Where do gliding ants live?

Gliding ants are arboreal ants of several different genera that are able to control the direction of their descent when falling from a tree. Living in the rainforest canopy like many other gliders, gliding ants use their gliding to return to the trunk of the tree they live on should they fall or be knocked off a branch. Gliding was first discovered for 'Cephalotes atratus' in the Peruvian rainforest.

Gliding ants have been shown to have an 85% chance of landing successfully on the same tree, as opposed to 5% if they were simply parachuting like normal ants. This adaptation helps to keep ants from getting lost or killed on the forest floor, away from their treetop nests. During a fall, gliding ants use visual cues to locate tree trunks. Specifically, they orient to light-colored columnar objects that sharply contrast the darker background of foliage in the forest. Tropical trees often have light-coloured bark and frequently are covered with white lichens, thus they provide the most conspicuous targets.