Jumper Ant, Jumping Jack - Myrmecia nigrocincta
Subfamily Myrmeciinae
This page contains pictures and information about Jumper Ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- About to jump, ant body length 15mm
- We found these Jumper Ants in Toohey Forest, Karawatha Forest and Rainforest near Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious. In Brisbane Forest Park, they can be found on almost every large tree trunks. The workers were foraging alone on low vegetation during the day. Sometimes we saw a few of them hunting on the same plants.
- They are aggressive and have a very potent sting. They will chase intruders away from their nest.
- They are large in body size, with large eyes and elongated mandibles. They have bright colours, with a dark green head and brown body and dark brown legs.
- Bulldog ants have good eyesight and they respond even while we were one meter away. Their last pair of legs are strong and enables them to jump 10cm among vegetations like a small grasshopper, so they also commonly known as Jack Jumpers. The second picture show the ant about to jump.
- We also found these Jumper Ants in Brisbane Forest Park. We found some of them foraging on leaves.
- Those ants can also be found foraging on forest ground.
- The Jumper Ants' nest can be found on the vertical wall of footpath in Rainforest. We can found quite a number of those net near Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious.
- Near one of the Jumper Ants' nest entry we noticed there were a lot of empty beetle shells. Some ants were still moving them. We believed those were the litter removed from the ant nest. Those beetles were one of the ants' larvae major food source.
- 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.
