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Sticker of Australian jumper ant
Bug card No. 0217 of 4,939

Australian jumper ant

Myrmecia tarsata
Eats: A bit of everythingAntsForests and woods6 legs

The Australian jumper ant is a big bull ant from south-eastern Australia. It is mostly black, with yellow jaws and reddish yellow legs. At over 2 centimetres long, it is a real giant among ants.

Lives in
South-eastern Australia, mainly New South Wales and around Canberra
Length
2.2 to 2.4 cm (0.87 to 0.94 in)
Top speed
about 0.66 km/h (0.41 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
Like other bull ants, the grown-ups drink sweet plant juices and catch insects to feed their larvae.
For real!Photo of Australian jumper ant
Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Australian jumper ant about 2.4 cm long (0.94 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 5.5 seconds

How big is Australian jumper ant compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is 22 to 24 millimetres long, about as long as a paperclip.

2

In its nest, ordinary worker ants can lay eggs too, so the colony can carry on for a while without a queen.

3

The males are a little smaller than the workers.

you asked

Most asked questions about Australian jumper ant

?How big is the Australian jumper ant?

About 22 to 24 millimetres long, which is huge for an ant.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Myrmecia tarsata
Group
Ants
Family
Formicidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Myrmecia tarsata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Ants

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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