Black Cocktail Ant - Anonychomyrma sp.

Subfamily Dolichoderinae

This page contains pictures and information about Black Cocktail Ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Body length 5mm

This ant often be seen attending to various scale-insects and leafhoppers. Those ants get around them for their excretion of 'honey-dew', which contain the excess sugar.

Chris Freebairn sent us email advised that the white scale in the photos "are actually psyllid nymphs, known as lerps. They look like Diaspidid scales (known as hard scales), but this family does not secrete honeydew. Soft scales (Family Coccidae) secrete honeydew and are tended by ants, but look quite different."





They are sometimes seen in-group attacking other larger ants and insects



In ant's world, out number rules.







Reference and Link:
1. Dolichoderus spp. - Australian Insect Common Names, CSIRO, 2005.
2. Anonychomyrma - myrmecos.net, 25.Mar.2006.

Fire Ants - We are suffering the Fire Ants problem.
The Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta, is a serious new pest which has been detected in Brisbane, Queensland.
They can be the greatest ecological threat to Australia. More information please visit our Government Fire Ants web site.