Bicolored shield ant
The bicolored shield ant is a small two-coloured ant from Asia. It nests in the soil, often right at the base of a plant. It is a little farmer that looks after aphids to get their sweet honeydew.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its nest entrance is just a simple hole in the ground, but sometimes there are several.
Workers look for food both on the ground and up on plants.
In 2021 a YouTuber and ant keeper helped discover it in the Philippines. It was the 555th kind of ant found there.
It has also turned up far from home, in New Zealand and in Louisiana in the United States.
Most asked questions about Bicolored shield ant
?What does the bicolored shield ant eat?
Sweet nectar from plants and honeydew from aphids that it takes care of.
?Where does the bicolored shield ant live?
In grasslands and open forests across South and Southeast Asia.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Meranoplus bicolor
- Named by
- Guérin-Méneville, 1844
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Meranoplus bicolor (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Pronoy Baidya. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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