Bonni was taking an innocent stroll through the Healesville Sanctuary, which is in rural Victoria, Australia, when she stumbled upon this insect. It's about a centimeter long. Anyone know what it is? I'm assuming some variety of ant, but anyone know the species? There are more than 12,500 classified species of ant, so I'm not expecting any miracles.Thanks, Bonni.
UPDATE: There seems to be unanimous consent that this is a bulldog ant. Thanks, all.
Even though I'm no ant expert, I thought I'd give it a try by searching "australia ant" and wouldn't you know it, Google turned up Australian Ants Online? After browsing some of the images, I think it might be some sort of bulldog ant:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecia
ReplyDeleteMyrmecia sp.
Possibly Myrmecia forficata
it's a Bullant.
ReplyDeletethey bite and they sting
hurt a lot but not dangerous unless you have allergic reaction. They are really aggro too and will run at you and hold up their front biters. pretty cool
It's way cooler now that I know it's aggressive. It must put those big mandibles to use. I love angry bugs.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a bulldog ant.
ReplyDeletesomething i would prefer to leave alone...we have fire ants down here (NC) and i *hate* them, i seem to be a bit alergic and itch for DAYS! after being stung...bulldog ants dont' sound like fun to me...only on the other side of the glass, but i am a fish-girl, fish are cool...smile
ReplyDeleteAggro and they bite AND sting. And there I was, taking a picture of it... Then again, I also captured and released a Whitetail Spider before I knew what it was, too. And the other day I found some of what were apparently Redbacks in the compost bin.
ReplyDeleteI love how bloody dangerous Australia is. Makes you feel lucky to be alive! :)