Eating Ants

[Sico]

Out here in the middle of the Sahara, i have noticed a lot of the geckos we have here (dunno what the species is) and the Agamas, A. agama eat ants. there are a few varieties of ants, some very large ones, and some smaller ones like the normal household black ant. the Agamas and geckos will walk up to a line of ants and just start lapping them up, and during the day the agamas can be seen chasing down some of the larger soldier ants.
is this a common practice for lizards to eat ants, or could it be an adaptive thing here due to the lack of other suitable insect prey? Do beardies eat ants in captivity?
i would have thought that due to the amount of formic acid the ants contain that they would be only occasional prey items as opposed to a staple diet.
any thoughts?

[insaniac]

I see a lot of lizards here at home doing exactly the same thing.

I also thought the acid would be more of a deterrant than delicacy, but hey they proved me wrong.

Maybe they adapted to handle the acid like you said...

[fredsmith]

I've seen Agama's eating ants before... Ants have high values protein wise don't they? Experts out there, perhaps you could clear it up?

[Bushviper]

I see lizards eating termits and flying ants (which are actually also termites I think) but the black ants do not seem to have much nutritional value. They seem rather hard and even if you squash them they dont make much of a mark so how much nutrition is inside that hard body?

[marc bt]

i used to feed my beardies termites and they did fine! it was like a treat for them once or twice a week just like flyingants,cockeroaches(make sure no poisons have been used near them) and geckos!!

[Sico]

yeah but termites are not ants. termites are actually closer to cockroaches than ants.