These are green ants or green tree ants which are by the looks of it building a nest in my passion fruit vine.
Some of you are probably thinking that these look a little different to the green ant you are used to.
Maybe you are used to seeing those dark bodied, dark green abdomened green ants.
Well these are basically the same thing just a northern version that build their nest in foliage. They pack a punch when they bite too.
You find these green ants everywhere around Cairns.
They are super industrious, destroy a nest and you can bet 100s or 1000s of ants will be back to build another one somewhere else close by.
It is pretty interesting to watch them working together to create a new nest though.
From Minibeast Wildlife - Rainforest Encounter I found this informative bit of information ...
Green ants are fascinating in many ways. One unusual aspect of their behaviour is the use of their larvae as tools - the larvae produce silk. The worker ants hold the larvae in their mandibles and use their silk producing siblings to bond leaves together to form nests. This occurs whilst other patient ants hold the leaves in place. This laborious process can take several hours.
The nests they build can get quite large and the ants are very aggressive about protecting it.
I found another blog post from Wild Wings and Swampy Things about them if you really want to read more about these busy ants.
I have a feeling that their nesting plans went a little haywire after I discovered them at work in our garden yet again, that is after I photographed them of cause.
What industrious little creatures they are. Pleased I don't have them in my yard.
ReplyDeleteThey are and I have no idea how many time we have destroyed their nests they just come back ... lucky they stay outside at the moment.
ReplyDeleteG'Day Anne, I was just wondering what type of camera you use for your photography? I am looking at upgrading my old camera and you always seem to have great pics.
ReplyDeleteMandy
Hi Mandy,
ReplyDeleteThese photos were taken on an old lumix. A lot of my photos are taken on my small lumix that I can chuck in my pocket or my Fujifilm finepix HS20. My Fuji make me feel like I have an awesome SLR but isn't one and of cause didn't come with the price tag of one either. Other than that I was using a newer model Sony that had great zoom for a small camera. Thanks for your comments and hope that gives you some ideas.