#meat ants

[redrcs]

Yessssssss?

Meat ants guarding the entrance

A walk at Coolgardie

[robbiefishing]

An old bushmans trick using an ants nest.

[drhoz]

More About Meat Ants

Which isn't to say they don't eat meat - they can strip a carcase very effectively, which is how they got their most common name. They're also called gravel ants, because of they way they cover the tops of their nests with small gravel, snail shells, etc, to better absorb heat in the mornings so they can get an early start on foraging. However, if it gets too hot, the ants get too disorientated to forage, so rising temperatures are a concern for the biology of this species.

Another interesting fact about Meat Ants - they appear to be immune to Cane Toad venom, which makes them a major predator of toadlets, whose usual reaction to being attacked is to sit there and wait for the attacker to drop dead.

[drhoz]

Meat Ants cont.

Despite the name, they get most of their food from honeydew, collected from planthoppers and caterpillars under their care, supplemented with the remains of dead arthropods, such as the beetle they've neatly hollowed out below.