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Bigheaded Ant

Pheidole megacephala

Description:

There are two types of worker ant, the major or soldier ant and the minor worker. The common name of bigheaded ant derives from the soldier's disproportionately large head. This has large mandibles which may be used to crush seeds. The soldiers are about four millimetres in length, twice as long as the minor workers. The colour of both types varies from yellowish-brown or reddish-brown to nearly black. The rear half of the head is smooth and glossy and the front half sculptured. The twelve-segmented antennae are curved and have club-like tips. The waist or petiole is two-segmented with the node immediately behind conspicuously swollen. There are a pair of short, upward-facing spines on the waist. The body has sparse, long hairs. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidole_me...

Notes:

Notice the smaller minor worker ants accompanying the soldier ants.

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2 Comments

Eric Noora
Eric Noora 12 years ago

I was just about to say the same thing @textless. :-)

textless
textless 12 years ago

Amazing how similar they look to the ones I see here (in the western US). Good info too!

Eric Noora
Spotted by
Eric Noora

Batangas, Philippines

Spotted on Sep 11, 2011
Submitted on Sep 21, 2011

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