April 2019

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10 MEREDITH and DISTRICT NEWS ...Flight of the Myrmecia. the Sheoakian On Friday morning at 9.35am 22nd March I witnessed an event that is rarely seen. I have a few colonies of large black Myrmecia ants (big, scary, one inch long and alien looking) around the house but I don’t know the species name. All I know is that I have been bitten many times by these ants that chase me if I dare so much as look at them sideways. One will usually go on the attack while I’m not watching, crawl up over my shoes, up my socks and then find a nice piece of flesh to sink it’s tail stinger into. The pain is initially very sharp and hurts straight away and then it subsides into swelling and a severe itch for three days. Sometimes I’m so busy gripping my leg and yelling that it will have another go before I can find it and whack it away. It can cause anaphylaxis in susceptible people. So I’m not very fond of the wee beasties as they look up at me like Terminators waving their big nippers, legs and antennae about. “It looked like a tiny version of a scene from a Lord of the Rings exodus.” But on this particular Friday morning as I watered a few plants and watched out for straying activists from the ‘hole of terror’ I noticed busyness around the hole and there they were, lots of the enemy ants with lovely shiny wings all posturing about ignoring me for once. A slow continual throng of them was emerging from the hole and crawling up the sides of the pot plants very preoccupied with trying to fly. I had no idea they could fly! It looked like a tiny version of a scene from a Lord of the Rings exodus. I had a small panic attack out of sheer ignorance thinking that they were about to form a squadron and go for me en masse. So I escaped inside for a google. I read that what I was watching was a rarely witnessed event, the Morning Nuptial Flight of the Myrmecia that occurred only on one particular day of the year (any chosen day from January to <strong>April</strong>, 30C and sultry) when up to 20 winged female virgin queens and 100 or more winged males, all called alates, left the nest for their annual reproductive event. I came back outside to see many groups of the male alates in bunches around each female. I revisited the site later the same day but there were no ants to be seen anywhere. They had flown off to begin new colonies and everything was eerily calm again. I had witnessed this in two separate locations at exactly the same time and felt privileged to have seen this event and now know that below the ground in that previously feared, often quiet and seemingly inactive hole there is another small world going about its business preparing for its one special day of the year. I have a newfound respect and admiration for these formidable insects instead of the fear I once had but will still keep my distance. Please enjoy the photos of this often unobserved event.
MEREDITH and DISTRICT NEWS 11 Thursday 9.00am - 4.00pm Friday 9.00am - 4.00pm Saturday 9.00am - 4.00pm Sunday 10.00am - 3.00pm 30 Staughton Street, Meredith (03) 5286 1433
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April 2019

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