Large Purple Meat Ant- Iridomyrmex
Subfamily Dolichoderinae
This page contains pictures and information about Meat Ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Workers, body length 8mm
- Meat Ants are also known as Mount Ants or Tyrant Ants. Meat Ants are quite the large ants, with long legs and large head. Their body is black in colour with dark red head. Their nest usually build underground. They are common in Brisbane bush.
- Meat Ants are general predators and scavengers. They also tend soft-bug, such as aphids, to collect honeydew.
- The about pictures show the Meat Ants attending the bugs and attacking a bag caterpillar.
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- The about pictures show the Meat Ants attending the Scale Insects.
- Above picture shows Tony is examining the Meat Ants nest entrances. Meat Ants nests are built in soil. The above ground structure of nests decorated with small pebbles and having many entrances, which are the single cryptic holes just large enough for individual workers to squeeze through.
- The ants are active the whole year. They are fast running and foraging in large number. Their nests are large and are patrolled by aggressive workers. The Meat Ants are aggressive and they usually dominate the area that they forage. No other species of ants can be seen near by.
- The winged class, body length 15mm
- Found quite a number of winged class meat ants outside the nest during mid winter, just after a rainy day.
Attending Caterpillar
- On February, we found those Meat Ants attending caterpillars on a wattle tree. We believe the caterpillar could be the Double Spotted Line Blue butterfly caterpillar Nacaduba biocellata.
- Reference and Link:
- 1. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p289.
- 2. Iridomyrmex purpurea - Australian Insect Common Names, CSIRO, 2005.
- 3. Iridomyrmex purpureus - Australian Biological Resources Study.
- 4. Nacaduba biocellata - Australian Caterpillar by Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2004.
