Large pugnacious ant
The large pugnacious ant is a fierce little fighter from Africa. Its workers come in many sizes and colours, from yellowish brown to dark chocolate brown. It loves dry, open land and is often the boss ant wherever it lives.
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Fun facts
Pangolins love to eat it. In one South African nature park, this ant made up about three quarters of what the pangolins ate.
Aardvarks also gobble up lots of them, because there are so many of these ants around.
It fights other kinds of ants, but it leaves ants of its own kind from other nests alone.
Both big and small workers look for food on the ground, but almost only the small ones climb into bushes.
Dark ones have a checkerboard pattern on their back end, made by tiny hairs that catch the light in different directions.
Most asked questions about Large pugnacious ant
?What eats the large pugnacious ant?
Pangolins and aardvarks eat lots of them.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Anoplolepis custodiens
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Common pugnacious ant
Where the facts come from
- Anoplolepis custodiens (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 Erin Prado. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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