Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady?
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Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady? Spotted in the Glass House Mountains, south east Queensland.
I'm fairly sure it's a Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis, but not sure if the species is P. ammon, P. brisbanensis, or something else.


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F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
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Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady? Spotted in the Glass House Mountains, south east Queensland.
I'm fairly sure it's a Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis, but not sure if the species is P. ammon, P. brisbanensis, or something else.


I was *so* excited to tell you "Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis" but that is all I can do without looking at the books. Which I will do in a moment.
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Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady? Spotted in the Glass House Mountains, south east Queensland.
I'm fairly sure it's a Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis, but not sure if the species is P. ammon, P. brisbanensis, or something else.


Did she have those little fuzzy gold hairs on the top of her head at all?
I'm torn between Polyrhachis uncaria and Polyrhachis ammon based on the lit. which also says these two are hard to tell apart.
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Did she have those little fuzzy gold hairs on the top of her head at all?
I'm torn between Polyrhachis uncaria and Polyrhachis ammon based on the lit. which also says these two are hard to tell apart.
@futurebird I didn't notice any signs of golden hair on her head. It was only on her gaster, as far as I could tell.
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Ant Mastodon, can you ID this little lady? Spotted in the Glass House Mountains, south east Queensland.
I'm fairly sure it's a Spiny Ant from the genus Polyrhachis, but not sure if the species is P. ammon, P. brisbanensis, or something else.


FYI Hagiomyrma are a "species group" which I have come to understand means that even myrmecologists will get them mixed up. (It really means there is variation over a large region, and some questions about hybrids maybe existing. So they put everyone in a subgenus. )
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@futurebird I didn't notice any signs of golden hair on her head. It was only on her gaster, as far as I could tell.
@spacelizard
Polyrhachis ammon would be my guess then.However this is a tricky one!