How Bull Ants Hunt: Solo Hunters With Huge Eyes

Nov 3

2 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Bull ants are hunters. Unlike ants that march in long columns, each bull ant worker sets out alone, finds its prey with its eyes and brings it home for the larvae. Here is how bull ants hunt and what they eat.

Myrmecia forficata bull ant — Myrmecia forficata hunts and scavenges on its own.

Solo hunters

Bull ant workers do not lay scent trails and do not call for help when they find food. Every worker hunts on its own, which is why you usually see bull ants alone on the ground, on tree trunks or in low plants.

Hunting by sight

With some of the largest eyes in the ant world, bull ants spot moving prey from a distance. They watch, approach and then strike quickly. Some species even react to shadows. Read more in how bull ants see.

Jaws and sting

A bull ant grabs its prey with its long, toothed jaws and curls its gaster forward to sting. The venom quickly paralyses the prey. Because the sting has no barbs, the ant can sting several times if needed.

Jumping onto prey

Jumping species, such as jack jumpers and the jumper ant Myrmecia nigrocincta, can leap onto prey or away from danger. Myrmecia nigrocincta hunts caterpillars of the imperial hairstreak butterfly and sometimes even jumps while carrying one.

What do bull ants hunt?

Bull ants catch all kinds of insects and other small animals: beetles, caterpillars, flies, cockroaches, crickets, spiders, and even bees and wasps. Some species raid the nests of other ants. The black-headed bull ant Myrmecia nigriceps, for example, hunts carpenter ants. Not every prey is easy, though: some cockroaches defend themselves with a secretion that confuses the ants.

Adults drink, larvae eat

Adult bull ants cannot eat solid food. They live mainly on sweet liquids, such as nectar from flowers and honeydew, and on the juices of their prey. The meat goes to the larvae, which are carnivores. In some species, workers also lay special eggs as extra food for the queen and the larvae. Some bull ants visit flowers so often that Myrmecia nigrocincta is even seen as a possible pollinator of the mountain ash tree.