Red Bull Ant

• It sees and tracks an intruder from more than a metre away, a visual ability without parallel in the world of ants, most of which navigate by smell.
• Its sting is among the most painful in Australia and causes severe allergic reactions relatively often, with documented cases of anaphylaxis.
• The workers hunt alone rather than recruiting nestmates with pheromone trails, a behaviour regarded as primitive among ants.
• It sees. Unlike almost all ants, which navigate by smell, bulldog ants have large eyes and excellent vision: they track and leap on their prey, and detect an intruder a metre away.
• It does not simply bite and leave it at that: it grips with its jaws and curls its abdomen round to drive in its sting repeatedly. The sting is very painful, and in Australia there are documented deaths from anaphylaxis.
• Its genus retains traits considered primitive among ants: small colonies, solitary foraging without pheromone trails and little-differentiated workers.
• One of its species, Myrmecia pilosula, has the lowest chromosome number of any animal: a single pair.
• The workers hunt insects for the larvae and gather nectar and honeydew for themselves.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Open woodland and eucalypt scrub of eastern Australia

Sexual maturity

The fertile females fly briefly and then live underground as queens; in the genus Myrmecia queens of up to 15 years are reported. The winged males die shortly after mating

Gestation / incubation

The full passage from egg to adult takes several months, through the four stages of egg, larva, pupa and adult

Litter / clutch size

Underground colonies of up to about 3,000 individuals; the workers also contribute infertile trophic eggs that are given to the queen and the larvae

Sources consulted: Museo Australiano · Haight, trabajos sobre Myrmecia · Crosland y Crozier (1986), Science · Australian Geographic, ficha Bull ant · ficha de especie de Myrmecia gulosa · Fichas australianas de manejo de hormigas toro · Australian Geographic, ficha Bull ant (Myrmecia spp.)

Best time: Foraging by day and at dusk; the workers hunt alone, guided by sight rather than pheromone trails, and detect intruders at 1-2 metres

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.