The Most Rarest, Ancient Ants and The Quest to Rediscover Them
Australia is home to a wide range of ant species. One that might spring to mind is the Bulldog/Jack jumper ant, genus myrmecia.
(M. gulosa, "Hoppy Joe!")
As you can see, these ants have quite big eyes. This is because bulldog ants are very dependant on vision, something most other ant species have replaced with pheromonal (scent) trails.
But we aren't here to talk about them. We're here to discuss their cooler, shady cousin,
the Dinosaur ant (Nothomyrmecia macrops).
They might look all cute, but they are much more than that.
These ants are possibly the rarest and most primitive of all ant species, and this shows in their behaviour.
Like the Bulldog ant, these ants rely only on their vision as apposed to pheromones. Colonies only range from 50-100 individuals, when most ant species have colonies in the thousands. Furthermore, queens only lay one generation of eggs every year!
Because of this small size, workers can not effectively compete with other species such as Camponotus and Iridomyrmex. Thus, these ants are exclusively nocturnal so they don't have to hunt alongside the diurnal ant species.
Infact, the Dinosaur and Bulldog ant are so similar that the Dinosaur ants genus name, 'Nothomyrmecia', means 'False Bulldog ant'. The species name, 'macrops', means 'big eyes'.
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This species was first discovered in the form of two worker specimens by Amy Ena Crocker and colleagues, supposedly inland from Israelite Bay in Western Australia.
Due to its primitive appearance and unique body shapes, scientists were eager to find more specimens. Many expeditions were set out to locate this ant over the next three decades, all of which failed. One of the more notable expeditions was lead by the late, the great entomologist E. O. Wilson (who literally invented sociobiology!!!)
However, on October 22, 1977, entomologist Robert W. Taylor and colleagues would rediscover a lone worker in Poochera, South Australia. I'll let nullarbor.net take it away:
"Spurred on by rumours that an American scientist was coming to search for the lost ant, Dr. Taylor apparently mounted one last ditch attempt to beat the Americans to the punch. By an incredible stroke of good luck - if it could be called that - Dr Taylor and his group were driving to Western Australia when their vehicle struck mechanical problems at Poochera. As we all know, even the best laid plans can go astray, and Dr. Taylor's expedition was forced to make an unscheduled stop, and camp for the night at Poochera.
"Later that evening Dr. Taylor conducted an impromptu insect survey in the mallee scrub adjacent to camp. There's no doubt the last thing on Dr. Taylor's mind was Nothomyrmecia - after all, the last and only recorded sighting was made 46 years earlier, and even that was fully 1300 kilometres away to the west. Poochera was definitely the last place where Dr. Taylor expected to find Nothomyrmecia - but there it was, one solitary Nothomyrmecia worker ant crawling on a eucalyptus tree trunk.
"The sight was truly astonishing. Dr. Taylor then rushed back to his colleagues and in true Australian style he announced to the world, "The bloody bastard's here! I've got the Notho-bloody- myrmecia!"
I'd like to imagine that's true.
Poochera, which features Nothomyrmecia abundantly in the streets, is perhaps the only town I know of that survives exclusively off of ant tourism.
See you soon.