Photo 12104346, (c) Peter Slingsby, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Peter Slingsby

Attribution © Peter Slingsby
some rights reserved
Uploaded by peterslingsby peterslingsby
Source iNaturalist
Associated observations

Photos / Sounds

What

African Big-headed Ant (Pheidole megacephala)

Observer

peterslingsby

Date

October 6, 2014 07:23 AM SAST

Description

Workers small, brown, similar size to Linepithema humile but slightly smaller [say 2.25mm to 2.5mm]; major workers have disproportionally large heads. The ants I have found are browner than those in my sketch. Discovered 30 minutes ago the presence of these girls in my yard. It's a shocking discovery because we have always only had Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) in the garden. Some years ago the Argentines were driven out of the house by Technomyrmex pallipes - are they now losing ground in the garden too? What's going on here? And why are the Argies losing ground to a new set of invaders? Four blocks down the road they only have Lepisiota capensis! Weird stuff.

Associated taxa
Sizes