Green-headed Ant - Rhytidoponera metallica
Subfamily Ponerinae
- This page contains pictures and information about Green-head Ants that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 7mm
- Green-head Ants are also known as Metallic Pony Ants. Their workers are usually seen foraging on ground or low vegetations. They are common in Brisbane include backyards, gardens and bushes. They will give the painful stings against intruders.
- Those ants active from morning to evening. They like sugar and will attend the scale insect and planthoppers for their "honey dew".
- Green-head Ants build their nest in soil openly or under rocks. They are not very aggressive and have weak stink. However, I have a painful sting experience from them for I accidentally put my bare foot over their nest.
Green-head Ants are black in colour, with metallic purple-green colour on head and body when watch closely under the sun.
Winged Class
- A closer look to the winged ants, they are about the same size as the worker ants. They look exactly the same excepted winged. We do not known if this is a male or female.
Found a Earthworm
- They are scavengers as well as predators. We saw them hiding near the nests of other smaller ants species and attacked them.
- As most other ants, the adults feed on liquid sugar as their daily energy source. They look for rich protein foods to feed their young.
- The Green-head Ants found a Hairy Flower Wasp in our backyard. The Hairy Flower Wasps are known to parasite on scarab larvae, includes the Brown Cockchafer larvae which also found under lawn in our backyard. The wasp could be just newly emerged but unluckily found by the ants.
- Reference and Link:
- 1. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p286.
- 2. Rhytidoponera metallica - Green-head ant - myrmecos.net, 2005.
- 3. Green-head Ant Fact File - Wild life of Sydney, Australian Museum 2005.
