Ringbum millipede muncher ant
Plectroctena mandibularis
Name means: “it is named for its habit of hunting millipedes”
The ringbum millipede muncher ant is a big ant from Africa. It has a very special favourite food: millipedes. Its workers go hunting all alone in open country.
Lives in
Africa, from South Africa through East Africa to Ethiopia, in open country
What does it eat?
It hunts grown-up millipedes. Few ants are brave enough to take on such long, many-legged prey.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Ringbum millipede muncher ant about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its colonies are small and rarely have more than fifty ants.
2
Its nest has rooms deep underground, often more than 60 centimetres below the surface.
3
You can spot the door of its nest by the big piles of earth around it.
4
Unlike many ants that march in long lines, its workers search for food one by one.
you asked
Most asked questions about Ringbum millipede muncher ant
?What does the ringbum millipede muncher ant eat?
Mostly grown-up millipedes, which it hunts on its own.
?Where does the ringbum millipede muncher ant live?
In Africa, from South Africa through East Africa to Ethiopia.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Plectroctena mandibularis
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Ringbum ant, Millipede munching ant
Where the facts come from
- Plectroctena mandibularis (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 JMK. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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