Giant Turtle Ant - worker, La Isla Escondida, Colombia

This was a relatively quick snap, but of course only months later when trying to identify it do I discover that it's a pretty interesting species. Ants in the genus Cephalotes are characterized by their odd appearance. They have flat heads, a thorny thorax and a super smooth abdomen. They are called "turtle ants" but also "gliding ants" for their ability to drop from the canopy when there is danger, whilst steering themselves to safety during the fall.

They are relatively slow ants that are omnivorous yet mostly focus on treehopper secretions. I'd also like to include this part from Wikipedia explaining the effectiveness of their armed body combined with social cohesion:

"In one instance, a troop of army ants Nomamyrmex esenbeckii was seen attacking a colony, and the C. atratus workers made a living wall to defend the entrance, aligning their heavily sclerotinised heads to prevent the army ants from getting inside to attack their brood."

If you've ever seen the mass scale brutality of army ants, you'd realize that withstanding such an attack is no small feat! Most insects don't stand a chance against such an invasion.