Hairy big-headed ant
Pheidole pilifera
The hairy big-headed ant is a North American ant. Big-headed ants have two sizes of workers. The big ones have huge heads, and they help defend the nest and crack hard food.
Lives in
North America
What does it eat?
Big-headed ants like it collect seeds and also carry home bits of insects.
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)
Hairy big-headed ant about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It was first described in 1863 by a German scientist, Julius Roger.
2
There are four kinds of it, called subspecies. One is named after Colorado.
3
In big-headed ant nests, the large workers with huge heads are often called soldiers.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hairy big-headed ant
?Why is it called a big-headed ant?
Some of its workers have very large heads, much bigger than the others.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pheidole pilifera
- Named by
- Roger, 1863
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Pheidole pilifera (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 Muscedere ML, Traniello JFA. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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