Yet another ant anomaly (hopefully). Can anyone ID this ant? John took this photo in Melbourne, Australia (his phone number resides beneath that gray rectangle behind the ant). To give you a sense of perspective relative to the size of the ant, that's a common sugar ant gnawing on the large ant's foot. Any clue as to what this might be? Is the Aussie military working on ant-shaped robotics? Is this uber-ant trying to recruit more of its kind for the next ant vortex? How afraid should we be?
John caught this ant beneath a glass and released it outside, well away from his house. He needs some assurances people. Anything will help.
Mar 6, 2009
Ant ID Needed
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10 comments:
Might want to contact these guys. Linked is a list of Australian ants, some listed as being very large. For exact ID, they should be able to help.
http://www.terc.csiro.au/antnames.asp
Looks sort of like a large Camponotus which would narrow it down to one of about one hundred species in that genus found in Australia. Then again, I know absolutely nothing about Australian ants so it may well be something else. Nice looking ant.
You guys just make sure that ant stays well away from America. That sucker is amazonian!
The person running this blog might be able to help you out with the ant ID.
http://myrmecos.wordpress.com/
--
Bruce T.
Thanks to anonymous (first comment) I e-mailed CSIRO and got this response.
"Dear John,
This is a queen of a species of Camponotus, possibly C. terebrans. It has been on its nuptial flight, discarded its wings, and was looking for a place to begin a new colony.
Cheers,
Alan"
I don't know why but I feel better knowing that. Thanx Ugly Overload. XXX
Glad I could help her on her way.
Maybe the queen will name her new colony Gunnville after her friendly human neighbor.
I think I get partial credit for that one at least.
Neil, you called it first and deserve full credits and a candy cigar too. I will always remember the little ant chomping on her leg in this picture. It was a true hero to its colony. Respect and a moment of silence please. All hail the hero little ant (sobs).
And Raging Wombat. I hope there really is an ant empire somewhere out there called Gunnville now. And I hope the queen remembers me fondly as the kindly giant human that delivered her to the promised land and saved her from that one tiny ravenous common sugar ant. Way past my bed time, I will have sweet dreams tonight of the queen's rewards for me in her Antly court. Apologies to the serious biologists on this site, thanks for your help. Sweet dreams everyone.
Wow, I didn't even -notice- the tiny little ant chewing on her until you mentioned it. Wow. What a difference!
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