Yellow Ants, Acanthomyops by Joe Lencioni

August 11, 2007

5x Magnification ƒ/13.0, 1/200 s, 800 ISO

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Thanks to Andrew and Jerry, I think we may have identified these little creatures as yellow ants, or probably some species of Acanthomyops.

Since we aren’t ant scientists, if you happen to know better I’d love to hear from you.

5 Comments

Alarm Sistemleri said
August 11th, 2007 at 5:05 pm

Thats the wonderfull
Daniel Lestarjette said
August 13th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

It seems a little hard to tell from this photo alone, but you’re probably right about the species. Could be Lasius, of which Acanthomyops is sometimes considered a subgenus. Have a look here and see what you think.
(post author) Joe Lencioni said
August 13th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

@Daniel: Yes, I think you are correct. These two photos especially look similar.

Thanks so much for the link! This mystery seems to have been solved (at least well enough so I can finally sleep at night again). How did you know about these ants?
Daniel Lestarjette said
August 13th, 2007 at 2:41 pm

Well, I didn’t really. I have an anthropology background, so I know a lot about primates–but I just used the same resources I have for looking up primate taxonomy and information, and did some quick reading/skimming about Acanthomyops based on those results.

Anyway, even though I’m focusing more on archaeology these days, I still have a strong interest in taxonomy and phylogeny, so these little questions really interest me. :-)
J*U*N*E said
November 13th, 2007 at 2:33 am

The only reason i even decided to look into this type of ant is because they are all over the beach islands in the philippines when i vacationed out there. not sure about any of the other asian countries but the philippines definately.