Brown Bulldog Ant - Myrmecia pyriformis
Subfamily Myrmeciinae
This page contains pictures and information about brown bulldog ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Length 25mm
- In Brisbane Forest Park, we found another species of Giant Bulldog Ants. They are dark brown in colour with a black abdomen. Their hind legs are not as strong as the Jumper Ant. We did not see it jumping.
- We found this ant foraging alone on the ground. It was very aggressive. When we came close, it did not retreat but put up a fighting posture, waving its head with its huge jaws.
- Bulldog Ants are considered to be the most primitive of all living ants and they are the largest ants in Australia.
- One thing about this ant is worth mentioning. We collected the ant in a jar and brought back home for observation. The ant first ran around the jar anxiously, and seemed try to find a way out. After half a day, it stopped running and seemed understand that there was no way out. We supplied the ant with some honey and it fed on it occasionally. One day we supply the ant with a dead grasshopper body. It held the grasshopper body and ran madly again. It seemed it forgot that there was no way out and this time, although with the heavy load, it ran around for a much longer time before it stopped. We know one of the missions of a foraging ant is to find the protein food for their young. We can feel how deep is this mission is in-printed in the ant's brain.
- After a few days, we put the ant back to where we found it.
- Reference and Link:
- 1. Australian Ant Image Database - Australian Ant Image Database, R.W Taylor.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p287.
