Insects › Ants

Southern Meat Ant

Iridomyrmex purpureus

Easily confused with

Study checks a spoken answer against these, and tells you which one you named.

Where it is recorded

Records by month in Australia.January 418, February 348, March 481, April 595, May 363, June 250, July 158, August 276, September 385, October 508, November 543, December 408.
Australia4,733
Victoria1,560
South Australia1,021
New South Wales826
Queensland622
Australian Capital Territory363
Western Australia338
Northern Territory3
United States2
Virginia2

Counts show where people looked, not only where it lives.

Traits

Behavioral

  • EusocialLives in colonies with division of labor and cooperative brood careFrom its classification

Ecological

  • ColonialFrom its classification

Physical

  • ExoskeletonHas a hard external skeletonFrom its classification

Classification

KingdomAnimals · Animalia
PhylumArthropods · Arthropoda
ClassInsects · Insecta
OrderAnts, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies · Hymenoptera
FamilyAnts · Formicidae
GenusRainbow, Tyrant, and Meat Ants · Iridomyrmex

Sources

Remember the name next time.

Practise Southern Meat Ant with real photos from different observers. Say the name out loud, and it comes back just before you would forget it.