Large black ground nesting ant, not aggressive, not metallic. Not at all sure about the suggested ID, the head shape seems different to the Rhytidoponera species on CNM
Hi Simone, this is a new species for CNM (well done!) and you correctly identified the genus (well done again!) but the bad news is that I can't be sure which species it is. It could be Rhytidoponera punctiventris, but there are quite a few Rhytidoponera species which look a lot like this. I may be able to make some progress on it when I can get back into Canberra, hopefully not too far away. Cheers, Jon
Hi Simone, a second sighting of this ant prompted me to give it a better name. Within the genus Rhytidoponera, there are a number of "species groups" which contain multiple species which have similar attributes. The species group which contains the species R. punctiventris is called the "R. aciculata species group". R. punctiventris is still the most likely species ID for your ant as it is very common but I still can't be sure enough to call it that species. Cheers, Jon
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