27/10/2025
Myrmecia forceps...
This one of the more impressive species of bull ants. Not impressive due to colouration or location but mainly due to their incredible mandibles.
Their mandibles are very different to all other bull ants, and then if thats not enough, they actually mimic the colours and patterns of the dominant bull ant species of the same area.
This little colony, we suspect under a dozen workers as we have only ever seen 3 or 4 at a time, mimics the colours and patterns of the myrmecia nigriceps. Their mimicry isnt perfect all the time with workers often having birth marks or blemishes in their colours. Two of the workers we saw in the little colony had slight red markings on their black heads... super cool. We have a similar thing in one our personal colonies, she has a butterfly on her head.
We have seen forceps mimic nigriceps, sp.12, rufinodis, a video of a gulosa mimic and photos of a possible nigrocincta mimic.
The myrmecia forceps is one of our favourite species.
This colony was seen on a recent photography session with who took some video, jump on their page to see it!!.
