| Meat ant | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Meat ant | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Dolichoderinae |
| Tribe: | Tapinomini |
| Genus: | Iridomyrmex |
| Species: | I. purpureus |
| Binomial name | |
| Iridomyrmex purpureus (Smith, 1858) |
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Meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus), also known as meat-eater ants or gravel ants, are a species of ant belonging to the Iridomyrmex genus. They can be found throughout Australia.
Meat ants live in underground nests of up to 64,000 workers. Many nests may be connected together into a supercolony that stretches up to 650 metres (0.4 miles). They like to place gravel, sand, or bits of dead vegetation at the openings to their nests.
Meat ants are omnivorous scavengers and are used by some Australian farmers for carcass removal.[1]
They tend to forage during the day and, being an aggressive species, force other ant species to forage at night. They are aggressive towards meat ants from neighbouring colonies as well and engage in ritual fighting to establish foraging boundaries.[2]
Like other Iridomyrmex species, they engage in a mutualistic relationship with certain caterpillars and butterflies of specific species which produce secretions that meat ants will feed on. In return, they protect the caterpillars from predation.
Recently it has been found that Meat ants are able to kill Cane toads, an introduced pest, as the toxins that usually kill a Cane toad's predator do not affect the meat ants,[3] however cane toads have been known to be killed by other Australian animals.[4]
References
- ^ "Meat Ant, Gravel Ant Fact File". Australian Museum. http://www.faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=248. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ Shattuck, S. O.; Barnett N. J.. "Iridomyrmex". Australian Ants Online. Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Entomology. http://www.ento.csiro.au/science/ants/dolichoderinae/iridomyrmex/iridomyrmex.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ "Killer ants are weapons of mass toad destruction". Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6007268.ece. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
- ^ "Cane Toads". Queensland Museum. http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/features/frogs/canetoad.asp. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Iridomyrmex purpureus |
- Australian Ants Online page on meat ants.
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