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Myrmecia nigriceps

January 01, 1970

Myrmecia nigriceps, also known as the black-headed bull ant, is a species of ant endemic to Australia. A member of the genus Myrmecia in the subfamily Myrmeciinae, it was first described by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr in 1862. These ants are large, varying from 19 to 23 millimetres (0.75 to 0.91 in) in length. However, colonies contain workers that are much smaller, usually half the size of normal workers. The queens are the largest while the males are the smallest, which can be easily identified due to their small mandibles.

Myrmecia nigriceps
Myrmecia nigriceps worker from Strangways, Victoria
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmeciinae
Genus: Myrmecia
Species:
M. nigriceps
Binomial name
Myrmecia nigriceps
Mayr, 1862[1]
Synonyms
  • Myrmecia fasciata (Clark, 1951)

Mainly nocturnal M. nigriceps is found in hot hilly areas and woodland, nesting underground in mounds. The ant's diet consists of sweet liquids from flowering plants and invertebrate prey, which are fed to the carnivorous larvae. Spiders are known to eat these ants, and echidnas consume the larvae and pupae. Like other Myrmecia species, M. nigriceps ants possess a powerful and painful sting, and the venom is capable of inducing allergic reactions in sensitive people.

Taxonomy edit

First identified by Gustav Mayr in 1862, Mayr provided the first description of M. nigriceps in his journal Myrmecologische Studien. The species was described under the binomial name Myrmecia nigriceps, based on syntype workers collected from Gayndah and Sydney.[2] In 1907, Swiss myrmecologist Auguste Forel treated M. nigriceps as a variant of M. vindex, but he eventually treated it as a synonym in 1910.[3][4] M. nigriceps was revived as a full species in 1933 by American entomologist William Morton Wheeler, on the basis that it is distributed throughout Australia and its average size is greater than M. vindex.[5] Scottish born Australian entomologist John S. Clark published one synonym – Myrmecia fasciata, now considered a junior synonym.[6] M. nigriceps is a member of the genus Myrmecia, a part of the primitive subfamily Myrmeciinae; most ancestors of the genus are only found in fossils, with the exception of the dinosaur ant (Nothomyrmecia macrops).[7][8]

Myrmecia nigriceps is a member of the M. gulosa species group, which is the largest species group of the nine groups described.[6] The specific name, nigriceps, is a combination of the Latin words niger, meaning "black", and caput, meaning "head". This references the distinctive black head of the ant. With this said, M. nigriceps is commonly known as the black-headed bull ant.[9]

Description edit

 
Front view
 
Side view
 
Top view

The size of worker ants varies from 19 to 23 millimetres (0.75 to 0.91 in). However, colonies contain very small workers, usually less than half the size of normal sized workers. Despite this, it is not known if M. nigriceps is polymorphic, due to little differences in morphology between the workers in comparison to Formicinae ants and Pheidole, with soldiers having enormous heads.[10] The queens are the largest, measuring around 24 to 26 millimetres (0.94 to 1.02 in), and males being around similar sizes to worker ants at 18 to 20 millimetres (0.71 to 0.79 in).[11] The head and gaster are black, and the thorax, node, and postpetiole are either red or yellowish red, while the antennae and legs are either yellow or testaceous. The mandibles and clypeus are also yellow.[11] The hair is short and yellow in colour, erect on the body and suberect on the legs. The pubescence (short, fine, soft hair) is white and abundant all over the postpetiole and gaster. The head is almost as broad as its total length, and the mandibles are longer than the head with 13 teeth present.[11]

The queen is similar in appearance to the worker, but they are the largest members of the colony. The hair is more abundant, and the head is broader. The mandibles are shorter and broader, although they are still as long as the head.[11] The wings are yellowish in colour and translucent in appearance. Males are the smallest members of the colony and can be easily identifiable by their perceptibly smaller mandibles. The hairs on males are the longest and most abundant among the worker and queen castes, with a long and broad head.[11]

Myrmecia nigriceps is similar in appearance to M. vindex, but several morphological characters distinguish these two species from each other. For example, M. nigriceps is generally larger than M. vindex, and its head is either black or dark brown; the head is broader and more rectangular in workers. The thorax and pedicel are noticeably darker and brownish red. The nests and behaviour, however, of both ants are similar to each other.[5]

Distribution and habitat edit

Myrmecia nigriceps is distributed throughout Australia, but the ant is absent from areas in central Australia and the northern Australian coast.[5][12] The range of M. nigriceps extends from Queensland and down into New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.[11] It is also found in South Australia and Western Australia.[5] Colonies are found in deserts, coastal areas, plateaus, woodland, native vegetation, hot hilly areas covered with scrubby vegetation and in rehabilitated sites, at elevations ranging from 300 to 460 metres (1,000 to 1,500 ft).[13][14][15][16]

Myrmecia nigriceps is a mound constructing species, although colonies can be found under logs.[5][17] Workers decorate the nest with a variety of items, including lateritic pebbles and soil crumbs, in a similar fashion of meat ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) nests.[17] Other items used for nest decorating include small stones and plant material.[18]

Behaviour and ecology edit

 
Worker grooming herself

Myrmecia nigriceps ants are crepuscular and nocturnal foragers, searching for food during the night.[19][20] Workers are found foraging on Eucalyptus trees and is sympatric with many species.[21] Adults are nectarivores, feeding on sweet liquids from plants and the larvae are carnivorous, feeding on captured invertebrates and other ants such as Camponotus workers and males.[5][18][22] Cockroaches, such as Platyzosteria castanea and Platyzosteria ruficeps, can repel attacks by M. nigriceps by discharging a secretion that disorientates the attacking workers.[23] Workers begin to forage one hour before sunset, with peak activity occurring during the twilight hours. These ants have excellent vision, having the largest eye lenses and photoreceptors than any other Myrmecia ant.[20] These ants are capable of discriminating the distance and size of objects moving nearly a metre away, sensitive to motion and will rapidly charge towards any moving objects to attack it.[24]

These ants are preyed on by the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), and by spiders in the genus Zenodorus, particularly Zenodorus metallescens.[25][26] Blindsnakes are known to consume the larvae and pupae of these ants.[27] Colonies are also a host for M. inquilina, a social parasite that lays its eggs inside the colony.[28]

Myrmecia nigriceps is an extremely aggressive ant, and larger colonies may rival other colonies of a different Myrmecia species (such as M. gulosa) in terms of fierceness and pugnacity.[5] While the mandibles cause little to no pain in humans, the ant is equipped with a painful and powerful sting that is found at the end of the gaster. Like other ants, the sting is not barbed, and workers are able to sting multiple times without injuring themselves.[29] With a median lethal dose (LD50) of 7.3 mg/kg, the venom is relatively weak in comparison to other Myrmecia ants, whose LD50 is much lower.[a][31] However, in a 2011 study, at least one patient had an allergic reaction to M. nigriceps venom. This study also concluded that many other Myrmecia species can cause anaphylaxis, as well as the Green-head ant (Rhytidoponera metallica).[32] In the Starr sting pain scale, a scale which compares the overall pain of hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale, the sting of M. nigriceps was ranked as two in pain, described as "painful".[33] M. nigriceps ants are able to enter colonies they do not reside in without being attacked; this may be due to these ants failing to recognise foreigners, or the consequences of ignoring workers from other colonies is low.[34][35]

Nuptial flight occurs after rain for several days, taking place between December and March. The males and virgin queens emerge from their nest, and unlike other species who mate on the ground or climb onto nearby trees or branches to fly off from, the reproductive alates will fly from the nest. Recorded nuptial flights usually took place on hilltops.[21] M. nigriceps queens are not known to seal up their entrance during colony foundation, unlike other Myrmecia species such as M. regularis.[36] Workers can live exceptionally long, with an average lifespan of 2.2 years; maximum longevity in workers varied from 2.1 to 2.4 years.[37][38][39]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Some tested Myrmecia species have an LD50 value of 0.18–0.35 mg/kg.[30]

References edit

  1. ^ Johnson, Norman F. (19 December 2007). "Myrmecia nigriceps Mayr". Hymenoptera Name Server version 1.5. Columbus, Ohio, USA: Ohio State University. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  2. ^ Mayr, Gustav (1862). "Myrmecologische Studien" (PDF). Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien (in German). 12: 649–776. doi:10.5281/zenodo.25912.
  3. ^ Forel, Auguste (1907). Formicidae. In Michaelsen & Hartmeyer. Die Fauna Südwest-Australiens. Ergebnisse der Hamburger-Südwest-Australischen Forschungsreise 1905 (PDF) (in German). Gustav Fischer, Jena. p. 264.
  4. ^ Forel, Auguste H. (1910). "Formicides australiens reçus de MM. Froggatt et Rowland Turner". Revue Suisse de Zoologie (in French). 18: 1–94. doi:10.5281/zenodo.25595.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wheeler, William M. (1933). Colony-founding among ants, with an account of some primitive Australian species (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 38–40. OCLC 1411297.
  6. ^ a b Ogata, K.; Taylor, R.W. (1991). "Ants of the genus Myrmecia Fabricius: a preliminary review and key to the named species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae)". Journal of Natural History. 25 (6): 1623–1673. doi:10.1080/00222939100771021.
  7. ^ Wilson, E. O.; Holldobler, B. (2005). "The rise of the ants: A phylogenetic and ecological explanation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (21): 7411–7414. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.7411W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502264102. PMC 1140440. PMID 15899976.
  8. ^ Archibald, S.B.; Cover, S. P.; Moreau, C. S. (2006). "Bulldog Ants of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands and History of the Subfamily (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae)". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 99 (3): 487–523. doi:10.1603/0013-8746(2006)99[487:BAOTEO]2.0.CO;2.
  9. ^ Corbett, David (1980). Field Guide to the Flinders Ranges. Adelaide: Rigby Ltd. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-7270-1165-7.
  10. ^ McAreavey, John (1948). "Observations on Myrmecia tarsata Smith". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 73: 137–141.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Clark, John (1951). The Formicidae of Australia Volume 1. Subfamily Myrmeciinae (PDF). Melbourne: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. pp. 64–66.
  12. ^ Clark, John S. (1925). "The ants of Victoria. (Part 2.)" (PDF). Victorian Naturalist. 42: 135–144. doi:10.5281/zenodo.26621.
  13. ^ Wheeler, William Morton (1909). "A Small Collection of Ants from Victoria, Australia" (PDF). Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 17 (1): 25–29. ISSN 0028-7199. JSTOR 25003349.
  14. ^ "Species: Myrmecia nigriceps". AntWeb. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  15. ^ Schnell, M. R.; Pik, A. J.; Dangerfield, J. M. (2003). "Ant community succession within eucalypt plantations on used pasture and implications for taxonomic sufficiency in biomonitoring". Austral Ecology. 28 (5): 553–565. doi:10.1046/j.1442-9993.2003.01312.x.
  16. ^ Taylor, Robert W.; Brown, D.R.; Cardale, Josephine C. (1985). Hymenoptera, Formicoidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea. Zoological catalogue of Australia. Vol. 2. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-644-03922-2.
  17. ^ a b Conole, Lawrence E. (1993). "Observations of nest mound decoration by the bulldog ant Myrmecia forficata and other Myrmecia species in south-west Victoria". The Victorian Naturalist. 110 (5): 217–218.
  18. ^ a b Abensperg-Traun, Max; Smith, Graeme T. (1999). "How small is too small for small animals? Four terrestrial arthropod species in different-sized remnant woodlands in agricultural Western Australia" (PDF). Biodiversity and Conservation. 8 (5): 709–726. doi:10.1023/A:1008826114741. ISSN 1572-9710. S2CID 31047636.
  19. ^ Brown, William (1953). "Revisionary notes on the ant genus Myrmecia of Australia" (PDF). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 111 (6): 1–35.
  20. ^ a b Greiner, Birgit; Narendra, Ajay; Reid, Samuel F.; Dacke, Marie; Ribi, Willi A.; Zeil, Jochen (2007). "Eye structure correlates with distinct foraging-bout timing in primitive ants". Current Biology. 17 (20): R879–R880. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.015. hdl:1885/56345. PMID 17956745. S2CID 35467027.
  21. ^ a b Narendra, A.; Reid, S. F.; Greiner, B.; Peters, R. A.; Hemmi, J. M.; Ribi, W. A.; Zeil, J. (2010). "Caste-specific visual adaptations to distinct daily activity schedules in Australian Myrmecia ants". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1709): 1141–1149. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1378. JSTOR 41148740. PMC 3049064. PMID 20926444.
  22. ^ Wheeler, George C.; Wheeler, Jeanette (1952). "The Ant Larvae of the Subfamily Ponerinae. Part I" (PDF). American Midland Naturalist. 48 (1): 111–144. doi:10.2307/2422136. JSTOR 2422136.
  23. ^ Bettini, Sergio (1978). Bettini, Sergio (ed.). Arthropod Venoms. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. p. 477. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-45501-8. ISBN 978-3-642-45501-8. S2CID 1047249.
  24. ^ Eriksson, E. Sture (1985). "Attack behaviour and distance perception in the Australian bulldog ant Myrmecia nigriceps" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Biology. 119 (1): 115–131. doi:10.1242/jeb.119.1.115.
  25. ^ Green, B.; Griffiths, M.; Newgrain, K. (1992). "Seasonal patterns in water, sodium and energy turnover in free-living echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus (Mammalia: Monotremata)". Journal of Zoology. 227 (3): 351–365. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1992.tb04399.x.
  26. ^ Jackson, Robert R.; Li, Daiqin (2001). "Prey‐capture techniques and prey preferences of Zenodorus durvillei, Z. metallescens and Z. orbiculatus, tropical ant‐eating jumping spiders (Araneae: Saiticidae) from Australia". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 28 (3): 299–341. doi:10.1080/03014223.2001.9518272. S2CID 83504302.
  27. ^ Henle, K. (1989). "Ecological segregation in a subterranean reptile assemblage in arid Australia". Amphibia-Reptilia. 10 (3): 277–295. doi:10.1163/156853889X00430.
  28. ^ Haskins, Caryl P.; Haskins, Edna F. (1964). "Notes on the biology and social behavior of Myrmecia inquilina. The only known myrmeciine social parasite". Insectes Sociaux. 11 (3): 267–282. doi:10.1007/BF02222677. S2CID 34794416.
  29. ^ Clark, John S. (1927). "The ants of Victoria. (Part 3)". The Victorian Naturalist. 44: 33–40. doi:10.5281/zenodo.26623.
  30. ^ Capinera, John L. (2008). Encyclopedia of Entomology (2nd ed.). Dordrecht: Springer. p. 4085. ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1.
  31. ^ Evans, David L.; Schmidt, Justin O. (1990). Insect defenses: adaptive mechanisms and strategies of prey and predators. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-88706-896-6.
  32. ^ Brown, Simon G. A.; van Eeden, Pauline; Wiese, Michael D.; Mullins, Raymond J.; Solley, Graham O.; Puy, Robert; Taylor, Robert W.; Heddle, Robert J. (April 2011). "Causes of ant sting anaphylaxis in Australia: the Australian Ant Venom Allergy Study". The Medical Journal of Australia. 195 (2): 69–73. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb03209.x. hdl:1885/31841. PMID 21770873. S2CID 20021826.
  33. ^ Starr, Cristopher K. (1985). "A simple pain scale for field comparison of Hymenopteran stings" (PDF). Journal of Entomological Science. 20 (2): 225–231. doi:10.18474/0749-8004-20.2.225.
  34. ^ Gordon, Deborah M. (2010). "5". Ant encounters: interaction networks and colony behavior. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0-691-13879-4.
  35. ^ van Wilgenburg, E; Dang, S; Forti, AL; Koumoundouros, TJ; Ly, A; Elgar, MA (2007). "An absence of aggression between non-nestmates in the bull ant Myrmecia nigriceps". Die Naturwissenschaften. 94 (9): 787–790. Bibcode:2007NW.....94..787V. doi:10.1007/s00114-007-0255-x. PMID 17458525. S2CID 2271439.
  36. ^ Freeland, J. (1958). "Biological and social patterns in the Australian bulldog ants of the genus Myrmecia". Australian Journal of Zoology. 6 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1071/ZO9580001.
  37. ^ Schmid-Hempel, Paul (1998). Parasites in social insects. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-691-05924-2.
  38. ^ Hölldobler, Bert; Wilson, Edward O. (1990). The Ants. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-674-04075-5.
  39. ^ Haskins, Caryl P.; Haskins, Edna F. (1980). "Notes on female and worker survivorship in the archaic ant genus Myrmecia". Insectes Sociaux. 27 (4): 345–350. doi:10.1007/BF02223727. ISSN 1420-9098. S2CID 26383105.

External links edit

January 01, 1970
myrmecia, nigriceps, also, known, black, headed, bull, species, endemic, australia, member, genus, myrmecia, subfamily, myrmeciinae, first, described, austrian, entomologist, gustav, mayr, 1862, these, ants, large, varying, from, millimetres, length, however, . Myrmecia nigriceps also known as the black headed bull ant is a species of ant endemic to Australia A member of the genus Myrmecia in the subfamily Myrmeciinae it was first described by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr in 1862 These ants are large varying from 19 to 23 millimetres 0 75 to 0 91 in in length However colonies contain workers that are much smaller usually half the size of normal workers The queens are the largest while the males are the smallest which can be easily identified due to their small mandibles Myrmecia nigriceps Myrmecia nigriceps worker from Strangways Victoria Scientific classification Domain Eukaryota Kingdom Animalia Phylum Arthropoda Class Insecta Order Hymenoptera Family Formicidae Subfamily Myrmeciinae Genus Myrmecia Species M nigriceps Binomial name Myrmecia nigricepsMayr 1862 1 Synonyms Myrmecia fasciata Clark 1951 Mainly nocturnal M nigriceps is found in hot hilly areas and woodland nesting underground in mounds The ant s diet consists of sweet liquids from flowering plants and invertebrate prey which are fed to the carnivorous larvae Spiders are known to eat these ants and echidnas consume the larvae and pupae Like other Myrmecia species M nigriceps ants possess a powerful and painful sting and the venom is capable of inducing allergic reactions in sensitive people Contents 1 Taxonomy 2 Description 3 Distribution and habitat 4 Behaviour and ecology 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksTaxonomy editFirst identified by Gustav Mayr in 1862 Mayr provided the first description of M nigriceps in his journal Myrmecologische Studien The species was described under the binomial name Myrmecia nigriceps based on syntype workers collected from Gayndah and Sydney 2 In 1907 Swiss myrmecologist Auguste Forel treated M nigriceps as a variant of M vindex but he eventually treated it as a synonym in 1910 3 4 M nigriceps was revived as a full species in 1933 by American entomologist William Morton Wheeler on the basis that it is distributed throughout Australia and its average size is greater than M vindex 5 Scottish born Australian entomologist John S Clark published one synonym Myrmecia fasciata now considered a junior synonym 6 M nigriceps is a member of the genus Myrmecia a part of the primitive subfamily Myrmeciinae most ancestors of the genus are only found in fossils with the exception of the dinosaur ant Nothomyrmecia macrops 7 8 Myrmecia nigriceps is a member of the M gulosa species group which is the largest species group of the nine groups described 6 The specific name nigriceps is a combination of the Latin words niger meaning black and caput meaning head This references the distinctive black head of the ant With this said M nigriceps is commonly known as the black headed bull ant 9 Description edit nbsp Front view nbsp Side view nbsp Top view The size of worker ants varies from 19 to 23 millimetres 0 75 to 0 91 in However colonies contain very small workers usually less than half the size of normal sized workers Despite this it is not known if M nigriceps is polymorphic due to little differences in morphology between the workers in comparison to Formicinae ants and Pheidole with soldiers having enormous heads 10 The queens are the largest measuring around 24 to 26 millimetres 0 94 to 1 02 in and males being around similar sizes to worker ants at 18 to 20 millimetres 0 71 to 0 79 in 11 The head and gaster are black and the thorax node and postpetiole are either red or yellowish red while the antennae and legs are either yellow or testaceous The mandibles and clypeus are also yellow 11 The hair is short and yellow in colour erect on the body and suberect on the legs The pubescence short fine soft hair is white and abundant all over the postpetiole and gaster The head is almost as broad as its total length and the mandibles are longer than the head with 13 teeth present 11 The queen is similar in appearance to the worker but they are the largest members of the colony The hair is more abundant and the head is broader The mandibles are shorter and broader although they are still as long as the head 11 The wings are yellowish in colour and translucent in appearance Males are the smallest members of the colony and can be easily identifiable by their perceptibly smaller mandibles The hairs on males are the longest and most abundant among the worker and queen castes with a long and broad head 11 Myrmecia nigriceps is similar in appearance to M vindex but several morphological characters distinguish these two species from each other For example M nigriceps is generally larger than M vindex and its head is either black or dark brown the head is broader and more rectangular in workers The thorax and pedicel are noticeably darker and brownish red The nests and behaviour however of both ants are similar to each other 5 Distribution and habitat editMyrmecia nigriceps is distributed throughout Australia but the ant is absent from areas in central Australia and the northern Australian coast 5 12 The range of M nigriceps extends from Queensland and down into New South Wales the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria 11 It is also found in South Australia and Western Australia 5 Colonies are found in deserts coastal areas plateaus woodland native vegetation hot hilly areas covered with scrubby vegetation and in rehabilitated sites at elevations ranging from 300 to 460 metres 1 000 to 1 500 ft 13 14 15 16 Myrmecia nigriceps is a mound constructing species although colonies can be found under logs 5 17 Workers decorate the nest with a variety of items including lateritic pebbles and soil crumbs in a similar fashion of meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus nests 17 Other items used for nest decorating include small stones and plant material 18 Behaviour and ecology edit nbsp Worker grooming herself Myrmecia nigriceps ants are crepuscular and nocturnal foragers searching for food during the night 19 20 Workers are found foraging on Eucalyptus trees and is sympatric with many species 21 Adults are nectarivores feeding on sweet liquids from plants and the larvae are carnivorous feeding on captured invertebrates and other ants such as Camponotus workers and males 5 18 22 Cockroaches such as Platyzosteria castanea and Platyzosteria ruficeps can repel attacks by M nigriceps by discharging a secretion that disorientates the attacking workers 23 Workers begin to forage one hour before sunset with peak activity occurring during the twilight hours These ants have excellent vision having the largest eye lenses and photoreceptors than any other Myrmecia ant 20 These ants are capable of discriminating the distance and size of objects moving nearly a metre away sensitive to motion and will rapidly charge towards any moving objects to attack it 24 These ants are preyed on by the short beaked echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus and by spiders in the genus Zenodorus particularly Zenodorus metallescens 25 26 Blindsnakes are known to consume the larvae and pupae of these ants 27 Colonies are also a host for M inquilina a social parasite that lays its eggs inside the colony 28 Myrmecia nigriceps is an extremely aggressive ant and larger colonies may rival other colonies of a different Myrmecia species such as M gulosa in terms of fierceness and pugnacity 5 While the mandibles cause little to no pain in humans the ant is equipped with a painful and powerful sting that is found at the end of the gaster Like other ants the sting is not barbed and workers are able to sting multiple times without injuring themselves 29 With a median lethal dose LD50 of 7 3 mg kg the venom is relatively weak in comparison to other Myrmecia ants whose LD50 is much lower a 31 However in a 2011 study at least one patient had an allergic reaction to M nigriceps venom This study also concluded that many other Myrmecia species can cause anaphylaxis as well as the Green head ant Rhytidoponera metallica 32 In the Starr sting pain scale a scale which compares the overall pain of hymenopteran stings on a four point scale the sting of M nigriceps was ranked as two in pain described as painful 33 M nigriceps ants are able to enter colonies they do not reside in without being attacked this may be due to these ants failing to recognise foreigners or the consequences of ignoring workers from other colonies is low 34 35 Nuptial flight occurs after rain for several days taking place between December and March The males and virgin queens emerge from their nest and unlike other species who mate on the ground or climb onto nearby trees or branches to fly off from the reproductive alates will fly from the nest Recorded nuptial flights usually took place on hilltops 21 M nigriceps queens are not known to seal up their entrance during colony foundation unlike other Myrmecia species such as M regularis 36 Workers can live exceptionally long with an average lifespan of 2 2 years maximum longevity in workers varied from 2 1 to 2 4 years 37 38 39 See also editList of Myrmecia species List of ants of AustraliaNotes edit Some tested Myrmecia species have an LD50 value of 0 18 0 35 mg kg 30 References edit Johnson Norman F 19 December 2007 Myrmecia nigriceps Mayr Hymenoptera Name Server version 1 5 Columbus Ohio USA Ohio State University Retrieved 1 April 2015 Mayr Gustav 1862 Myrmecologische Studien PDF Verhandlungen der Zoologisch Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien in German 12 649 776 doi 10 5281 zenodo 25912 Forel Auguste 1907 Formicidae In Michaelsen amp Hartmeyer Die Fauna Sudwest Australiens Ergebnisse der Hamburger Sudwest Australischen Forschungsreise 1905 PDF in German Gustav Fischer Jena p 264 Forel Auguste H 1910 Formicides australiens recus de MM Froggatt et Rowland Turner Revue Suisse de Zoologie in French 18 1 94 doi 10 5281 zenodo 25595 a b c d e f g Wheeler William M 1933 Colony founding among ants with an account of some primitive Australian species PDF Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press pp 38 40 OCLC 1411297 a b Ogata K Taylor R W 1991 Ants of the genus Myrmecia Fabricius a preliminary review and key to the named species Hymenoptera Formicidae Myrmeciinae Journal of Natural History 25 6 1623 1673 doi 10 1080 00222939100771021 Wilson E O Holldobler B 2005 The rise of the ants A phylogenetic and ecological explanation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 21 7411 7414 Bibcode 2005PNAS 102 7411W doi 10 1073 pnas 0502264102 PMC 1140440 PMID 15899976 Archibald S B Cover S P Moreau C S 2006 Bulldog Ants of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands and History of the Subfamily Hymenoptera Formicidae Myrmeciinae Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99 3 487 523 doi 10 1603 0013 8746 2006 99 487 BAOTEO 2 0 CO 2 Corbett David 1980 Field Guide to the Flinders Ranges Adelaide Rigby Ltd p 192 ISBN 978 0 7270 1165 7 McAreavey John 1948 Observations on Myrmecia tarsata Smith Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 73 137 141 a b c d e f Clark John 1951 The Formicidae of Australia Volume 1 Subfamily Myrmeciinae PDF Melbourne Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Australia pp 64 66 Clark John S 1925 The ants of Victoria Part 2 PDF Victorian Naturalist 42 135 144 doi 10 5281 zenodo 26621 Wheeler William Morton 1909 A Small Collection of Ants from Victoria Australia PDF Journal of the New York Entomological Society 17 1 25 29 ISSN 0028 7199 JSTOR 25003349 Species Myrmecia nigriceps AntWeb California Academy of Sciences Retrieved 26 August 2015 Schnell M R Pik A J Dangerfield J M 2003 Ant community succession within eucalypt plantations on used pasture and implications for taxonomic sufficiency in biomonitoring Austral Ecology 28 5 553 565 doi 10 1046 j 1442 9993 2003 01312 x Taylor Robert W Brown D R Cardale Josephine C 1985 Hymenoptera Formicoidea Vespoidea and Sphecoidea Zoological catalogue of Australia Vol 2 Canberra Australian Government Publishing Service p 13 ISBN 978 0 644 03922 2 a b Conole Lawrence E 1993 Observations of 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Pauline Wiese Michael D Mullins Raymond J Solley Graham O Puy Robert Taylor Robert W Heddle Robert J April 2011 Causes of ant sting anaphylaxis in Australia the Australian Ant Venom Allergy Study The Medical Journal of Australia 195 2 69 73 doi 10 5694 j 1326 5377 2011 tb03209 x hdl 1885 31841 PMID 21770873 S2CID 20021826 Starr Cristopher K 1985 A simple pain scale for field comparison of Hymenopteran stings PDF Journal of Entomological Science 20 2 225 231 doi 10 18474 0749 8004 20 2 225 Gordon Deborah M 2010 5 Ant encounters interaction networks and colony behavior Princeton N J Princeton University Press pp 104 105 ISBN 978 0 691 13879 4 van Wilgenburg E Dang S Forti AL Koumoundouros TJ Ly A Elgar MA 2007 An absence of aggression between non nestmates in the bull ant Myrmecia nigriceps Die Naturwissenschaften 94 9 787 790 Bibcode 2007NW 94 787V doi 10 1007 s00114 007 0255 x PMID 17458525 S2CID 2271439 Freeland J 1958 Biological and social patterns in the Australian bulldog ants of the genus Myrmecia Australian Journal of Zoology 6 1 1 18 doi 10 1071 ZO9580001 Schmid Hempel Paul 1998 Parasites in social insects New Jersey Princeton University Press p 9 ISBN 978 0 691 05924 2 Holldobler Bert Wilson Edward O 1990 The Ants Cambridge Massachusetts Belknap Press of Harvard University Press p 169 ISBN 978 0 674 04075 5 Haskins Caryl P Haskins Edna F 1980 Notes on female and worker survivorship in the archaic ant genus Myrmecia Insectes Sociaux 27 4 345 350 doi 10 1007 BF02223727 ISSN 1420 9098 S2CID 26383105 External links edit nbsp Media related to Myrmecia nigriceps at Wikimedia Commons nbsp Data related to Myrmecia nigriceps at Wikispecies Myrmecia nigriceps in the Atlas of Living Australia Myrmecia nigriceps in the Catalogue of Life Myrmecia nigriceps in the Universal Protein Resource Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Myrmecia nigriceps amp oldid 1223598120, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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