Sunday Night Movie: Attenborough on Webspinners 7 Comments / fun, Nature / By alexwild From the BBC’s amazing “Life in the Undergrowth“: A bonus point to anyone who can name the ant at 1:40. Tweet Share Google Plus Share Whatsapp reddit Save
myrmecos September 12, 2010 at 8:05 pm Not quite. Similar in size and body proportion, and until recently both your guess and the mystery ant were placed in the same subfamily. Reply
Piotr Naskrecki September 13, 2010 at 10:43 am Ectatomma, possibly E. tuberculatum, judging by the shape of the head. Reply
Júlio Chaul September 13, 2010 at 11:39 am Ectatomma, possibly E. parasiticum, judging by the shape of the head. Reply
myrmecos September 13, 2010 at 12:13 pm I think you know more about ants than you let on, Piotr. That was my take on the identification, too. The petiole is too stubby to be any other species. Reply
JasonC. September 13, 2010 at 8:01 pm Spiderman was obviously lying when he said he was bitten by a spider. It was actually a genetically engineered webspinner. 🙂 But how could an insect get so much protein for its silk on a diet of lichens and bark? Reply
Pachycondyla apicalis
Not quite. Similar in size and body proportion, and until recently both your guess and the mystery ant were placed in the same subfamily.
Is it Paraponera clavata?
Ectatomma, possibly E. tuberculatum, judging by the shape of the head.
Ectatomma, possibly E. parasiticum, judging by the shape of the head.
I think you know more about ants than you let on, Piotr. That was my take on the identification, too. The petiole is too stubby to be any other species.
Spiderman was obviously lying when he said he was bitten by a spider. It was actually a genetically engineered webspinner. 🙂
But how could an insect get so much protein for its silk on a diet of lichens and bark?