Oecophylla smaragdina (nombres comunes hormiga tejedora, hormiga verde) es una especie de hormiga arbórea de Asia tropical y Australia. Forma colonias con varios nidos en los árboles. Cada nido está hecho de hojas cosidas entre sí con seda producida por las larvas.

Las obreras (menores y mayores) son de color naranja. Las menores miden 5 a 6 mm de longitud. Cuidan las larvas y cosechan la melaza de bichos escamas. Las obreras mayores miden de 8 a 10 mm, con largas patas y fuertes mandíbulas. Forrajean y construyen los nidos. Las reinas suelen medir 20 a 25 mm de longitud y suelen ser de color verdoso castaño.

Oecophylla smaragdina está ampliamente distribuida en Asia tropical y Australia, extendiéndose desde la India a Indonesia y las Filipinas y el norte de Queensland en Australia. es una especie arbórea que hace sus nidos en el follaje. Construyen sus nidos de noche. Las obreras mayores hacen la parte de afuera y las menores completan la estructura interior. Una colonia suele tener varios nidos en un árbol o a veces en varios árboles vecinos. Hay colonias que llegan a tener medio millón de individuos. En un caso se encontró una colonia con 151 nidos distribuidos en doce árboles. Cada colonia tiene una sola reina que permanece en uno de esos nidos; las larvas son transportadas a otros nidos de la colonia. La vida promedio de una colonia madura puede llegar a los ocho años.

Esta especie de hormigas es una parte importante de ecosistemas en el dosel arbóreo de regiones tropicales húmedas. Las obreras construyen los nidos con hojas que cosen y aseguran con seda producida por las larvas. La primera hilera de hormigas se forman en línea y se aferran del borde de una hoja cercana, acercando ambas hojas. Otras obreras, cada una llevando una larva en su boca, aplican el extremo del abdomen de la larva a cada hoja en turno. El fino hilo de seda producido por la larva sirve para unir los bordes de ambas hojas. Se repite la operación con otras hojas para ir expandiendo el nido. <!-- ocultar Weaver ants feed on insects and other invertebrates, their prey being mainly beetles, flies and hymenopterans. They do not sting, but have a painful bite into which they can secrete irritant chemicals from their abdomens. In Singapore, colonies are often found in sea hibiscus and great morinda trees which entice the ants with nectar, the trees in return receiving protection from herbivorous insects. In Indonesia, the trees supporting colonies include banana, coconut, oil palm, rubber tree, cacao, teak, jackfruit, mango, Chinese laurel, petai, jengkol, duku, rambutan, jambu air and kedondong. The ants also attend aphids, scale insects and other homopterans to feed on the honeydew they produce, especially in tree canopies linked by lianas. For this purpose, they drive away other ant species from the parts of the canopy where these sap-sucking insects live. Another association is with the larvae of certain blue butterflies In Australia, the common oak-blue, the bright oak-blue and the purple oak-blue are obligate associates and only occur in parts of the country where the weaver ant is established. Shelters may be built by the ants close to their nests specially to protect these assets. Some species of jumping spiders, such as myrmecophilic associate Cosmophasis bitaeniata, prey on the green tree ants by mimicking them with deceptive chemical scents. Disguised as one of them, the jumping spiders access their nests to consume the larvae and lay their own eggs alongside the nest, so that spiderlings can easily reach the ant larvae.

The larvae and pupae are collected and processed into bird food, fish bait and in the production of traditional medicines in Thailand and Indonesia. In Java, Indonesia the larvae and pupae of these ants are known as kroto and are harvested commercially for use as captive songbird food and as fishing bait. Songbirds are very popular in Java and the ant larvae provide a good balanced diet of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Kroto can be bought from pet shops or can be gathered fresh from the countryside. As bait for fish, the larvae are mixed with chicken eggs, maize, beans and honey. In India, the adult ants are used in traditional medicine as a remedy for rheumatism, and an oil made from them is used for stomach infections and as an aphrodisiac. In Thailand and the Philippines the larvae and pupae are eaten and are said to have a taste variously described as creamy, sour and lemony. In some parts of this ant's range, colonies are used as a natural form of pest control. Crops that have been protected in this way have included cashew, citrus, mango, coconut, cocoa and coffee. The ants are aggressive towards humans, and in Sri Lanka ant protection has been abandoned in coffee culture, because picking the crop proved too "painful". The oldest written record of the use of these ants to control pests is their use in China in 304 AD to control pests in citrus. -->