Brown Bulldog Ant, Giant Bull Ant
- Myrmecia pyriformis or Myrmecia brevinoda
Subfamily Myrmeciinae
This page contains pictures and information about brown bulldog ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia. This is the largest ant we found.
- Length 25mm
- In Brisbane Forest Park, we first found this 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. This Giant Bulldog Ant will jump as well when necessary, although not very often seen as the Jumper Ants.
- This Giant Bulldog Ants seem habitat in wet Eucalypt forest. We found them in Brisbane Forest Park, Daisy Hills near Buhot Creek and Mt Tamborine.
- We usually 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.
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- Look at its angry face. Watch out, all ants bite (and/or sting), especially bulldog ants.
- Bulldog Ants are considered to be the most primitive of all living ants and they are the largest ants in Australia.
The Mission that deeply in-printed in Ant's brain
- One thing about this ant is worth mention. 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.
- Then nothing happened and the ant just rested, fed on the honey occasionally.
- One day we supply the ant with a dead grasshopper body. It held the grasshopper body and started running 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 just understood how deeply this mission is in-printed in the ant's brain.
- After a few days, we brought 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.
- 3. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - New edition, Published by Queensland Museum 2007, p167.
