Black House Ants

Description:

All ants are in the family Formicidae. They all have a waist. Their waist is composed of one or two knobs which are the first one or two segments of their abdomen. Their antennae have a distinct elbow. Ants live in colonies made up of several castes. These included the winged males, winged females, soldiers and workers. There are sixteen ant subfamilies world-wide, ten of which can be found in Australia. Of the ten subfamilies, six are common in most areas in Brisbane. Black House Ants are probably the most common. Their size is usually between 2.5mm - 3mm, and they are omnivorous. Ants are social insects; they form small to large colonies. Ant colonies usually contain: an egg-laying queen and many workers together with their brood i.e., eggs, larvae and pupae. Worker ants carry out different jobs including nest construction, foraging, looking after the brood and queen, and nest defense. When the ant colony becomes mature, the next generation of winged females and males are produced. They are present in the nest for only a short period. Soon after emerging, they leave the nest to mate and establish new nests elsewhere. Some information sourced from brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_ants/

Habitat:

This species can be found in both urban and rural areas in Australia, and usually nest under stones or dry logs. They are commonly in gardens... and in houses, usually in wall cavities or similar. At present, they seem to be everywhere... in the millions!

Notes:

Do you know how hard it is to photograph these small ants in macro with a point-and-shoot camera? It's a nightmare, but hopefully these photos are adequate enough. Anyway, they found a small snail and systematically killed it and cleaned out the shell. I returned the following day and the shell was empty. Ants are efficient killers and are never wasteful.