Discussion · BT Free Social

Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady? Spotted in the Glass House Mountains, south east Queensland.

I'm fairly sure it's a Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis, but not sure if the species is P. ammon, P. brisbanensis, or something else.

@futurebird

#Ant #AntsOfMastodon #Ants

Photo of an ant on a wooden surface, with its mandibles agape. It has spines protruding from its thorax and a golden sheen to its abdomen.

Photo of an ant on a wooden surface. The ant has spines protruding from its third, and a golden sheen to its abdomen.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 3 hours ago

@spacelizard

FYI Hagiomyrma are a "species group" which I have come to understand means that even myrmecologists will get them mixed up. (It really means there is variation over a large region, and some questions about hybrids maybe existing. So they put everyone in a subgenus. )

Anthony Horton

@spacelizard@aus.social replied · 2 hours ago

@futurebird Ah, yes, I see. Looking at iNaturalist it shows many "sub-genera" within Polyrhachis, including the Hagiomorpha species group, and within Hagiomorpha it has many "complexes" of similar species, including the Ammon-group Spiny Ants, which includes both P. ammon and P. uncaria.

I guess this is the sort of thing that happens when you have over 600 species in a genius.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 3 hours ago

@spacelizard

Did she have those little fuzzy gold hairs on the top of her head at all?

I'm torn between Polyrhachis uncaria and Polyrhachis ammon based on the lit. which also says these two are hard to tell apart.

Anthony Horton

@spacelizard@aus.social replied · 3 hours ago

@futurebird I didn't notice any signs of golden hair on her head. It was only on her gaster, as far as I could tell.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 2 hours ago

@spacelizard
Polyrhachis ammon would be my guess then.

However this is a tricky one!

Umbrella

@umbrella@aus.social replied · 49 minutes ago

@futurebird @spacelizard loading the first photo into Seek app comes back with the same result. Polyrhachis ammon.

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

iNaturalist

Seek by iNaturalist
· iNaturalist

Anthony Horton

@spacelizard@aus.social replied · 2 hours ago

@futurebird Thanks.

She certainly was a good looking ant. Still photos don't really do justice to their golden sheen.

myrmepropagandist

@futurebird@sauropods.win replied · 3 hours ago

@spacelizard

I was *so* excited to tell you "Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis" but that is all I can do without looking at the books. Which I will do in a moment.

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