Ant Hill Wood

A queen ant can use her jaws to tear and render prey, but also hold her eggs and larvae without even puncturing the skin. When you look at the serrated edged jaws of this Camponotus punctulatus queen from South America, (photo kindly supplied by Tom Nitti, Somerset UK) you will see just what I mean about an ants jaws being both cruel and terrible, yet they also can be kind and loving at the same time!

Yet another set of lovely close ups taken by Tom, this time of his C. punctulatus queen. Note how his great quality photos show the intricate detail of the ants compound eye and the nodes on the antennae. Each ridge of the chitin (hard outer shell) of her head is clearly defined. Superb photos Tom, and I really think you consider this type of vocational work when you leave school, as you get better and better!

Below are some pictures taken by Tom of the above queen's new workers. In the first picture 2 ants can be seen feeding one another by Trophallaxis, while in the remaining photos you will see workers tending eggs, and cocooned pupae.

Getting out from your cocoon get be a tiring business for a young ant. So why struggle to get that start in life when one of your older sisters is there to lend a helping hand, or in this case, mandible. Tom must have waited for ages, and showed a great deal of patience to get these shots of a worker ant assisting her newly eclosed sister to rip open the cocoon.

You will see she even gives her young sibling a good tug to get her out, after first ripping open the paper like shell of the cocoon. Ants are capable of getting free from their cocoons themselves, but it is much easier to let another ant sister of yours assist you to get free; and a lot less stressfull too! Well done Tom for taking this young lady as she gets her first taste of adult life outside her cocoon.

A very nice Leaf Cutter ant species which is currently kept by my young friend Tom. He has taken some lovely photos of major and minor workers tending their fungus garden. This species is a bit easier to keep than say Atta, as their colonies tend to be smaller; although they still require high humidity to maintain the health of the fungus, so they are best kept in a heated tank set up with plenty of room for them to forage.

Here are Tom's superb photos which clearly show some really nice detail of these ants!

My grateful thanks go to a young man who lives in London for this set of photos. He is a member of my wife's Ant Hill World forum, and his name is Leon Dight; (better known as formicalondon on the forum boards).

These lovely photos show both major and minor workers of the European Harvester ant species, Messor barbarus eating a hearty meal of a locust. Leon has just added a binocular lens to his new camera, and has achieved these great shots of his colony at feeding time. Judging from the number of foraging workers, the colony looks like it is doing really well and prospering nicely!

The set up which he made himself is full of happy, contented ants. As this photo of his Messor barbarus colony with lots of brood and workers of various sizes clearly shows.

The next set of photos show Tom's Pogonomyrmex californicus queen with a nice batch of eggs and larvae. Note the smooth opaque exterior of the oval shaped eggs, while the larvae have hairy segments.

Tom has astounded me with such good photos, as it is not often we can view ant eggs in such close up detail; and I think everyone will agree they are well worth showing to a worldwide public, as each egg is only the size of a pinhead.

Bull ants, or Bull Dog ants are they are also known as, are found in many parts of Australia and Tasmania. All of these photos of Bull Ants (Myrmecia species) have been taken by James Bonning, who lives down under in sunny Australia. My thanks go to him for giving his kind permission to use his photos on my site. Cheers mate!!

Bull ants can be red, brown or black in colour; and workers may be over a centimetre in length, with a very nasty sting. They are fearless warriors capable of jumping a fair distance when attacking, earning them the nickname of "Jack Jumpers", as they also have excellent vision for ants and can see an approaching human from a good distance away. Being stung by just one of these ants is extremely painful, and can cause a person to go into anaphylactic shock and heart seizure; especially if you happen to be allergic to the toxins found in their venom, and requires immediate life saving hospital emergy treatment.

Anyway, enough said on that score, as I do not wish to scare anyone; and it is a rare occurrence for such a thing to happen, as more people are likely to be bitten by a snake or spider than stung by these ants, but it still pays to keep a safe distance.

To begin this series of photos, here is the nice set up James keeps his Bull Ants in.

This first photo shows the inside of the set up with some winged alates ( probably males) in the tunnels leading down from the plastic tubing.

Photo 2 is a very nice shot of worker ants lovingly tending eggs.

The next photo is a superb close up shot of a nurse/worker ant gently holding an egg in her powerful mandibles. This is a good example of how ants use their jaws, as she could easily bite through human skin with these very same jaws; but holds the egg without any damage occurring !

These last photos show foraging worker ants looking for food.I am reliably inform that they have a very sweet tooth, and only gather insects to feed to their developing larvae to aid growth into the pupal stage.

I was sent this queen from a good friend of mine who lives in France; but originally he came from Dublin in Ireland ( or Eire to be correct ). This lady was collected October 2004, and did manage to raise some brood which developed into workers.

Sadly all the workers died, and she lost her 7 remaining larvae in a tunnel collapse   I am hoping that she may raise a second batch of brood; but her chances are slim to say the least. This species is one of the Harvester Ants which live around the Mediterranean basin of Southern France, Spain and North Africa.

This is what a queen of this species is like.

This amazingly fabulous photo is a really close up shot of a Messor barbarus queen, showing some truly incredible detail of her jaws and antennae. Note the extremely hairy face, which is a trait of many myrmicine ant species!

Once more, I am deeply indebted to my good friend Tom Nitti from Somerset here in England for agreeing to let me use his photo. I don't know what Tom's secret is for taking such lovely ant photo close ups; but he truly is a great photographer for a young man of only 14 years!!

This is one of the Carpenter Ant species from the USA. Nesting mostly in rotting tree stumps, with the nest extending into the surrounding soil; they are large ants which are much bigger than the local British wood ants.

I was recently sent a small colony of these ants by a very good friend of mine, to whom I am eternally grateful for his kindness in sending me such a wonderful gift !  My one hope now is that the queen lays lots of eggs and produces a large colony. So, enough of my waffling; and here are some photos of them.

At the present time, the colony consists of 1 very big queen, 14 workers and a small number of brood.