Unidentified Ants

  • Posted on: 30 December 2004
  • By: agittins

Found some ants under a bin out in the yard today. Not being any type of entymologist myself (nor even being able to spell it correctly) I decided to photograph them for the DPI (Department of Primary Industries) to identify, in case they are the dreaded fireants. With no further ado, the photos (all graduations are in mm).

Two ants, showing colour differences in head between the twoThe lighter-headed fellow's noggin, 3/4 profileSame guy, better view of the mandibles

I will update this if/when I find out what they actually are - they look to me like meat ants, but they are smaller in general.

Comments

The CSIRO did little else than send me some brochures and forms that I had already looked over on their website. I guess this is good news, since if they were indeed fireants they more likely would have sent a hit-squad in bunny suits with flame-throwers, or whatever their preferred rapid-response method is :-)
On closer examination, I've noted that these guys have a single "horn" if you like, between their thorax and abdomens (as can be seen in the first pic, and to a lesser degree, the second), while all the pics I have seen of actual fireants depict two horns between the thorax and abdomen. While I am not an entymologist, I am pretty confident that these are indeed not fireants. Nonetheless they made good subjects for insect Macro photography practice :-)

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