A Golden-tailed sugar ant at Red Hill Nature Reserve
Identification history
| Camponotus aeneopilosus | 21 Jan 2024 | JonLewis | ||
| Unidentified | 21 Jan 2024 | LisaH |
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5 comments
LisaH
wrote:
22 Jan 2024
@JonLewis - thank you for this. Just wondering what you think the green insect is, that is being carried by the ant?
LisaH
wrote:
22 Jan 2024
Thank you - I saw a couple of ants carrying these. Are they for consumption?
JonLewis
wrote:
23 Jan 2024
Hi Lisa, ants have a sometimes complex relationship with aphids. Most of the time they collect the sweet honey dew from them as food, sometimes they eat the aphids themselves and sometimes they actively "farm" them, moving them around to start new colonies and generally taking care of them. Many Australian ants tend aphids for the honey dew and probably eat a few (e.g. Iridomyrmex, Papyrius and many more) but I'm not sure if anyone has documented Australian ants moving aphids around to start new colonies. Here is a link to a nice article about it. Cheers, Jon https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(22)01077-6.pdf
LisaH
wrote:
24 Jan 2024
Thank you - fascinating, as was the article! In the short time I was there, I saw two aphids being moved down the tree. Thanks again
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Nearby sightings
Location information
- Coordinates 149.104624-35.326427
- Maps Red Hill Nature Reserve
- Places Deakin, ACT
Sighting information
- 2 Abundance
- 21 Jan 2024 11:07 AM Recorded on
- LisaH Recorded by
Additional information
- Something green as miniscule prey Associated Insect
- 12mm to 25mm Animal size
- Alive / healthy Animal health
Species information
- Camponotus aeneopilosus Scientific name
- A Golden-tailed sugar ant Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 945m Recorded at altitude
- 379 images trained Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
