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Sticker of Variable big-headed ant
Bug card No. 4541 of 4,939

Variable big-headed ant

Pheidole bicarinata
Eats: A bit of everythingAntsGardens and meadows6 legs

The variable big-headed ant is a small ant from the United States. Some of its workers have extra-big heads. It is not a fussy eater at all.

Lives in
The United States, from Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Nevada east to New Jersey and Florida
Top speed
about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It eats insects, collects seeds such as dandelion seeds, and drinks sweet juice from little sugar spots on plants.
For real!Photo of Variable big-headed ant
Picture by Jen Fogarty. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A colony can grow to about 4,000 workers, but rarely bigger.

2

Some plants have little sugar spots on their leaves or stems, away from the flowers, and this ant likes to drink from them.

3

Its babies grow through four stages before they turn into grown-up ants.

you asked

Most asked questions about Variable big-headed ant

?What does the big-headed ant eat?

Insects, seeds and sweet plant juice.

?Where does the variable big-headed ant live?

In much of the United States, in many kinds of places.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Pheidole bicarinata
Group
Ants
Family
Formicidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Common big-headed ant

Where the facts come from

  1. Pheidole bicarinata (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 Jen Fogarty. 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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