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Savanna strobe ant:
Opisthoopsis haddoni
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Forest parrot ant:
Paratrechina vaga
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The angle-headed cannibal ant:
Cerapachys singularis
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 | Sydney Harbour Bridge jogging ant
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All illustrations Peter Jacklyn.
Top three illustrations from Alan Andersen's book:
Ants of northern Australia
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MUSCLE man tree-ants, goblin ants, fierce gremlin ants, Snugglepot
ants, Jumbuck sugar ants, possum ants and Thumbelina ants. These
creatures are not out of a children’s book, they’re
common names proposed by CSIRO’s Dr Alan Andersen for some of
Australia’s native ants.
Up to 20 million ants are found in the Australian environment, and
more than 1500 species are found in northern Australia. Although
ants are one of the most familiar group of insects throughout
Australia, Dr Andersen said the lack of common names has led to
poor public interest in them.
“Scientific names can be rather obscure, difficult to
pronounce and can be hard to remember for people who are not
scientists,” he explained. He also has explanations for the
names he proposes.
“For example, Goblin ants are bizarre looking and Jumbuck
sugar ants have ‘sheep-like’ heads. Possum ants live in
trees and Thumbelina ants have what looks like a ‘thumb
print’ on their backs.”
Dr Andersen says ants are chief among nature’s engineers,
maintaining healthy soils and regulating the flow of energy and
nutrients through the environment. They are being used by land
managers across Australia as biological indicators to diagnose the
health of ecosystems.
Other suggestions from Alan for the country’s ants include
the Genial killer ant, topless cannibal ant, giant snappy ant, the
bulldozer furnace ant, chocolate shield ant, toothless bull ant,
the smiling mono ant, dinosaur ants, the striped foaming ant and
the Angle-headed cannibal ant.
