Myrmecia (ant) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Myrmecia (ant) |
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| Bull ant queen in Swifts Creek, Victoria | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmeciinae |
| Tribe: | Myrmeciini |
| Genus: | Myrmecia Fabricius, 1804 |
| Type species | |
| Formica gulosa, now Myrmecia gulosa |
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| Diversity | |
| c. 93 species | |
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| Occurrences reported to the Atlas of Living Australia as of May 2015 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Halmamyrmecia Wheeler, 1922 |
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Myrmecia is a group of ants first named by a Danish zoologist named Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804. These ants belong to a larger ant family called Formicidae. There are at least 93 different kinds, or species, of Myrmecia ants. Most of them live in Australia and its nearby islands. One species is only found in New Caledonia.
People often call these ants "bull ants," "bulldog ants," or "jack jumper ants." They are known for being very aggressive and having painful stings. Some species can even jump when they feel threatened! Myrmecia ants have long jaws called mandibles and big eyes that help them see very well. They come in different colors and sizes, from about 8 millimeters to 40 millimeters long.
It can be hard to tell the difference between worker ants and queen ants because they look similar. However, male ants are easy to spot because their mandibles are much smaller. Most Myrmecia species have workers that are all about the same size. Some queens have no wings, while others have small or fully grown wings.
These ants usually build their nests in the ground. But sometimes, they can be found in rotten wood or under rocks. One special species even builds its nests only in trees. A queen ant will mate with one or more males. When she starts a new colony, she hunts for food until her first babies grow up. The journey from an egg to an adult ant takes several months.
Myrmecia workers live longer than many other ants. They can also lay eggs that hatch into male ants. These ants are considered one of the oldest and most basic groups of ants on Earth. They act differently from many other ants. For example, workers hunt for food alone and don't lead other ants to food sources. Adult ants eat sweet things like nectar, but their babies (larvae) are carnivores and eat insects. Not many animals eat Myrmecia ants because of their powerful sting. However, their larvae are sometimes eaten by blindsnakes and echidnas. Some of these ants also help pollinate flowers.
The sting of a Myrmecia ant is very strong. Their venom is among the most poisonous in the insect world. In Tasmania, about 3% of people are allergic to the venom of the M. pilosula ant. If stung, they can have a very serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. At least three people have died from these stings since 1936. People with severe allergies can get special treatment to help them.
Contents
What are Bull Ants Called?
The name Myrmecia comes from an old Greek word that means "ant." In Western Australia, the Aboriginal people called these ants kallili or killal, which means "lion-ant."
These ants are often called "bulldog ants," "bull ants," or "jack jumper ants." This is because they are fierce and hold onto their victims with their strong mandibles. Some species also jump when they are upset. Other common names include "inch ants," "sergeant ants," and "soldier ants." The jack jumper ant and its relatives are also known as "black jumpers," "hopper ants," "jumper ants," "jumping ants," and "skipper ants."
What do Bull Ants Look Like?
Myrmecia ants are easy to spot because of their large mandibles and big eyes. These eyes give them excellent vision. They also have a powerful sting they use to catch prey. Each of their eyes has 3,000 tiny lenses, making them the second largest eyes in the ant world.
Their size can vary a lot, from 8 millimeters to 40 millimeters long. The largest Myrmecia species is M. brevinoda, with workers reaching 37 millimeters. These are the largest worker ants in the world. Most species have workers that are all about the same size. But M. brevinoda is different, with workers of various sizes. Larger workers usually go out to find food or guard the nest. Smaller workers tend to the young ants.
Their colors can be different. Black mixed with red and yellow is common. Many species also have golden hair. Some are brightly colored, which is a warning to predators to stay away.
Worker ants usually have long mandibles with many teeth. Their antennae have 12 parts. They also have large simple eyes called ocelli.
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Queens are usually bigger than workers but have similar colors and body shapes. Their heads and mandibles are wider. Myrmecia queens are special because some species have fully winged queens, some have queens with small wings, and some have queens with no wings at all. For example, M. aberrans and M. esuriens queens are wingless. Some queens have tiny, undeveloped wings that prevent them from flying.
Male ants are easy to tell apart because their mandibles are wide and smaller. Their antennae have 13 parts and are almost as long as their bodies. Sometimes, a male ant can have features of both a male and a worker. For example, one M. gulosa male had a long, curved mandible on one side and a small one on the other. One side of its body looked male, and the other looked female.
The largest ant babies (larvae) of M. simillima can grow up to 35 millimeters long. The ant pupae (the stage before becoming an adult) are inside dark cocoons.
Where do Bull Ants Live?
Almost all Myrmecia ants live in Australia and its coastal islands. Only M. apicalis is found outside Australia, on the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia. One species, M. brevinoda, was found in New Zealand in 1940. It was likely brought there by people, perhaps in a wooden crate. However, it hasn't been seen in New Zealand since 1981, so it's thought to be gone from there.
These ants like to live in grasslands, forests, and woodlands. Their nests can be found in different types of forests and even in urban areas. When a queen starts a new colony, the nest is simple at first. It grows bigger as the colony grows. Nests can be in rotting logs, under rocks, in sand, or in soil.
Most species build nests underground. But M. mjobergi is a special species that nests in trees, often in epiphytic ferns. Some nests are dome-shaped with one entrance, while others have many holes and can go several meters underground. These mounds can be as tall as 0.5 meters. Workers decorate their nests with things like charcoal, leaves, pebbles, and twigs. Some ants use dry materials to help their nests warm up faster from the sun.
How do Bull Ants Behave?
Foraging for Food
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Myrmecia ants are among the most basic living ants. They are known as special hunters. Unlike most ants, workers hunt alone. They don't leave scent trails to guide others to food. They also don't carry other workers to food.
Most Myrmecia ants are active during the day, looking for food on the ground or on low plants. But a few species are active at night. Most are busy during warmer months and rest during winter. However, M. pyriformis is a night-active species that stays busy all year. Foraging ants use landmarks to find their way back home. If they get lost a short distance away, they look around and then quickly move towards their nest. M. vindex ants carry dead nest-mates out of their nests and put them on trash piles. This behavior is called necrophoresis.
Pollination
While it's rare for ants to pollinate flowers, some Myrmecia species have been seen doing it. For example, a special orchid called Leporella fimbriata can only be pollinated by winged male M. urens ants. The flower looks like a female M. urens ant, tricking the males into moving from flower to flower as they try to mate.
M. nigrocincta workers have visited Eucalyptus regnans and Senna acclinis flowers. They might help pollinate these trees. M. pilosula workers are often seen on Prasophyllum alpinum flowers. Even though they carry pollen in their jaws, they often clean their jaws on leaves, which might prevent them from helping with pollination.
What Bull Ants Eat
Even though they are fierce, adult Myrmecia ants eat sweet things. They like honeydew (a sticky liquid from insects on leaves), nectar, and other sugary substances. But their larvae (babies) are carnivores. Once they grow to a certain size, workers feed them insects that they have caught and killed. Workers also share food with other ants by spitting it up.
Adult workers hunt many different insects and other small creatures. These include beetles, caterpillars, spiders, bees, and other ants. They also eat things like earthworms, frogs, lizards, and even animal droppings. Some species, like M. pilosula, only attack small flies. M. gulosa ants attack Christmas beetles, but then bury them.
Myrmecia is one of the few ant groups where workers lay eggs that are not meant to hatch. These are called trophic eggs and are used as food for the other young ants. This has only been seen in M. forceps and M. gulosa. Queens and larvae eat these eggs, but workers do not. During winter, neither adults nor larvae eat food. But larvae are known to eat each other if there are no dead insects available.
Who Eats Bull Ants?
Myrmecia ants scare away many animals because of their sting. The blindsnake Ramphotyphlops nigrescens eats the larvae and pupae of Myrmecia ants, avoiding the stinging adults. The short-beaked echidna also eats their eggs and larvae.
Young assassin bugs of the species Ptilocnemus lemur try to trick these ants into stinging them. They wave their back legs to attract the ants. Parts of Myrmecia ants have been found in the stomachs of birds like the eastern yellow robin. Other birds like the Australian magpie also try to eat these ants, but few succeed.
Myrmecia ants can also be affected by parasites. For example, M. forficata larvae can be hosts to a wasp called Austeucharis myrmeciae. M. pilosula ants can get a parasite that changes their color from black to brown. Other parasites include fungi and worms.
Some Myrmecia species, like M. hirsuta and M. inquilina, live inside the colonies of other Myrmecia ants. This is called being an inquilines. M. nigrocincta ants sometimes enslave other ant species. M. nigriceps ants can enter other colonies of their own species without being attacked. This might be because they can't tell the difference between ants from their own nest and others.
Some beetles, skinks, and frogs also live peacefully inside Myrmecia nests. For example, the frog Metacrinia nichollsi has been found living in M. regularis colonies.
Life Cycle of Bull Ants
Like all ants, Myrmecia ants start as an egg. If the egg is fertilized, it becomes a female ant (a worker or a queen). If it's not fertilized, it becomes a male ant. They go through complete metamorphosis, meaning they change from an egg to a larva, then a pupa, and finally an adult.
When starting a new colony, up to four queens might work together to find a good spot. But after the first worker ants are born, the queens often fight until only one is left. However, some colonies can have up to six queens living together peacefully. A queen searches for a good place to build her nest. She digs a small room in the soil or under logs and rocks. There, she takes care of her young. Unlike many other ant queens, she also hunts for food instead of staying in her nest.
The first worker ants born are usually smaller than workers in older colonies. It can take a long time for the first workers to grow up. For example, M. forficata eggs take about 100 days to become adults. Other species might take up to eight months.
Queens lay about eight eggs, but less than half of them grow into adults. Some species lay their eggs one by one on the nest floor. Others, like M. pilosula, lay eggs in clumps of two to 30. The larvae can crawl short distances by themselves. Workers will cover the larvae in dirt to help them spin their cocoons. Sometimes, a new ant can come out of its pupa without help from other ants.
Myrmecia ants live longer than many other ant types. M. nigrocincta and M. pilosula live for about one year. M. nigriceps workers can live up to 2.2 years. The oldest worker ever recorded was an M. vindex ant, which lived for 2.6 years. If a colony loses its workers, queens can start laying eggs again to create a new workforce. A colony might also move to a new nest site.
Reproduction of Bull Ants
Winged, virgin queens and males, called alates, appear in colonies around January. They are preparing for their nuptial flight, which is when they fly to mate. A single colony might have twenty or fewer females, but many more males. The mating flight happens at different times for different species. It can be from mid-summer to autumn (January to early April). Ideal conditions for mating flights are hot, stormy days with winds and temperatures around 30°C.
Queens usually leave their nest alone to mate, but sometimes up to four queens might leave at the same time. Queens can mate with one to ten males. After mating, queens can either start a new colony on their own or join an existing colony. Queens that fly far from their home colony usually start their own new nests. Queens that mate close to home might try to return to their original nest or join another nearby nest.
In colonies with multiple queens, the egg-laying queens are usually not related to each other. But one study showed that related queens can sometimes live together in the same colony. The number of ants in a colony can range from 50 to over 2,200. A colony with fewer than 100 workers is not considered fully grown. A colony can last for many years.
Worker ants are known to lay their own eggs. However, these eggs are not fertilized and only hatch into male ants. Myrmecia is one of the few ant groups where female workers, called gamergates, can mate with males and produce female workers if the colony doesn't have a queen. Myrmecia workers are very fertile and can successfully mate. For example, a queenless M. pyriformis colony produced female workers for three years because the gamergates mated with males.
How Bull Ants See
Most ants have poor eyesight, but Myrmecia ants have excellent vision. They rely on what they see to find their way around. These ants can tell how far away objects are and how big they are, even from almost a meter away. Winged ants are only active during the day because they can see better then.
Different ants in a colony have different eye structures depending on their jobs. Ants that are active at night have larger eye parts compared to those active during the day. Myrmecia ants have three types of light sensors that can see UV light. This means they can see colors that humans cannot. Their vision is even said to be better than some mammals, like cats or dogs. However, worker ants find it hard to find their nests at night. This is because it's difficult to see the landmarks they use to navigate. So, they are more likely to return to their nests the next morning, moving slowly with many stops.
The Bull Ant Sting
Myrmecia workers and queens have a sting that is described as "sharp in pain with no burning." The pain can last for several minutes. On a scale that compares insect stings, Myrmecia stings are ranked as "painful" or "sharply and seriously painful."
Unlike honeybees, the Myrmecia sting does not have barbs. This means the stinger doesn't get stuck in the skin, so the ants can sting many times without hurting themselves. The sting is in their abdomen and is connected to a venom gland. This gland produces the venom that is injected into victims. Larger species of worker ants have long and very powerful stingers, some measuring 6 millimeters.
Bull Ants and Humans
Myrmecia ants are very well-known. They usually only act defensively around their nests. When they are out looking for food, they are more shy. However, most species are very aggressive if their nest is disturbed. A few, like M. tarsata, are timid and will retreat into their nest. If a nest is bothered, many workers will quickly rush out to attack.
Some species, especially the M. nigrocincta and M. pilosula groups, can jump several inches when they are upset. They jump by suddenly extending their middle and back legs. M. pyriformis is even considered the most dangerous ant in the world by the Guinness World Records.
Sadly, there have been deaths linked to Myrmecia stings. In 1931, two adults and a baby died from ant stings in New South Wales. Another death was reported in 1963 in Tasmania. Between 1980 and 2000, six deaths were recorded. Four were from M. pilosula stings, and two from M. pyriformis stings. Most victims died within 20 minutes of being stung. Before a special treatment program was available, Myrmecia stings caused one death every four years.
Bull Ant Venom
Each Myrmecia species has different venom. So, people who are allergic to ants should avoid Myrmecia ants, especially ones they haven't seen before. The venom of these ants is among the most toxic in the insect world.
In Tasmania, 2–3% of people are allergic to M. pilosula venom. This is a higher percentage than those allergic to western honeybee or European wasp stings. In a 2011 study on ant-venom allergies in Australia, 265 out of 376 people who reacted to ant stings were allergic to several Myrmecia species. Most of these (176 patients) reacted to M. pilosula venom. Dogs can also be at risk from Myrmecia stings. Some dogs have had serious health problems, including kidney failure, after being stung many times.
Treating a Bull Ant Sting
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How a Myrmecia sting is treated depends on how serious the reaction is. For mild pain, you can use creams or antihistamine tablets. Indigenous Australians use traditional remedies, like rubbing bracken ferns or juices from Carpobrotus glaucescens onto the sting to relieve pain.
Emergency treatment is only needed if someone shows signs of a severe allergic reaction. If this happens, the person should lie down with their legs raised. People at risk of anaphylaxis are given an EpiPen or Anapen to use if they get stung. If someone goes into anaphylactic shock, they need adrenaline and other medical help. If their heart stops, they need resuscitation.
A special treatment called allergy immunotherapy (also called desensitization) is available for those who are very sensitive to M. pilosula stings. This program has been effective in preventing anaphylaxis. During this treatment, patients receive small injections of venom under their skin. The dose gradually increases over time. This helps the immune system learn to react differently to the venom.
Before 2003, there wasn't much research on Myrmecia sting venom. Whole-body extracts were used for treatment but were found to be ineffective. In 2003, ant venom immunotherapy was shown to be safe and effective against Myrmecia venom.
How to Avoid Bull Ants
Myrmecia ants are often seen by people, so avoiding them can be hard. Wearing closed shoes or boots can help reduce the risk of getting stung. However, these ants can sting through fabric. There's also a risk of being stung while gardening, as people might not notice the ants. Removing nearby nests or moving to areas with fewer Myrmecia ants can greatly lower the chances of being stung.
Because of their large mandibles, Myrmecia ants have been used in the past as surgical sutures to close wounds. The ant is also featured on a postage stamp and a special coin in Australia. M. gulosa is the symbol for the Australian Entomological Society. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer famously wrote about Myrmecia ants, describing how a cut ant's head and tail would fight each other.
See also
In Spanish: Hormigas bulldog para niños
