Giant Brown Bull Ant - Myrmecia pyriformis or M. 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 bull ant will jump as well when necessary, although not very often seen as the Jumper Ants.
- This Giant Bulldog Ant habitats in wet Eucalypt forest. We found them in Brisbane Forest Park, Daisy Hills near Buhot Creek and Mt Tamborine.
- We usually found them foraging alone on the ground. They were very aggressive. When we came closer, they would not retreat but put up a fighting posture, waving the head with huge jaws.
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- Look at its angry face. Watch out, all ants bite (and/or sting), especially bulldog ants.
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- Bulldog Ants are considered to be the most primitive of all living ants and they are the largest ants in Australia.
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- We also found this ant in Ford Road Conservation Area on Feb 2011.
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The Mission that deeply in-printed in the ant's brain
- One thing about this ant is worth mentioned. We collected the ant in a jar and brought it back home for observation. The ant first ran around the jar anxiously tried to find a way out. After half a day, it stopped running and found that there was no way out. We supplied the ant with some honey and it fed on it occasionally.
- Then nothing happened for days 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 holding the heavy grasshopper body, 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.
- This species looks like the Myrmecia pyriformis or M. brevinoda, most likely the M. pyriformis. Please check this page for the general information about Bull Ants.
- Reference:
- 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.
- 4. Myrmecia Fabricius, 1804 - CSIRO, 2010. Ants Down Under, viewed 15 March 2010, <http://anic.ento.csiro.au/ants>.
