Meat Ant at Symonston, ACT
Identification history
| Iridomyrmex purpureus | 13 Jul 2020 | JonLewis | ||
| Iridomyrmex purpureus | 13 Jul 2020 | YumiCallaway |
Identify this sighting
Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.
User's notes
Interesting to watch their interaction.
2 comments
JonLewis
wrote:
13 Jul 2020
Hi Yumi, by the stance of the ants it looks like you were observing workers from two different colonies who were arguing with each other about where the boundary between the two nest territories is exactly. The ants confront each other in a display of strength which can go on for hours or even days, but only rarely start actual fighting. The display is known as ritualized fighting and it is well documented in this species of ant. This link (https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Ritualised_fighting_in_Iridomyrmex_purpureus) will tell you all about it. It's pretty amazing! Cheers, Jon
YumiCallaway
wrote:
13 Jul 2020
Wow, that's cool! While I was observing them, I thought it almost looked like they were dancing - seems like they do have their own fighting routine after all :D Thanks for the info!
Please Login or Register to comment.
Nearby sightings
Location information
- Coordinates 149.146888-35.358823
- Altitude 610.5m
- Maps Callum Brae
- Places Symonston, ACT
Sighting information
- 16 - 100 Abundance
- 1 Apr 2018 09:45 AM Recorded on
- YumiCallaway Recorded by
Additional information
- 5mm to 12mm Animal size
Species information
- Iridomyrmex purpureus Scientific name
- Meat Ant Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-Invasive
- Up to 963.87m Recorded at altitude
- 480 images trained Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Confirmed by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
