Elongate twig ant
The elongated twig ant, or Pseudomyrmex gracilis, is a large, slender species native to Mexico and arid parts of the US. The workers are about 7–12 millimeters (0.28–0.47 in) in length and generally wasp-like in appearance and style of movement. Worker ants are bi-colored; the head and gaster are dark, while the antennae, mouthparts, thorax and legs are dull orange with dark shading. They often may be seen on vegetation, foraging for live insects or collecting honeydew from sap-sucking insects.
| Elongate twig ant | |
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| Pseudomyrmex gracilis worker | |
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| Species: | P. gracilis |
| Binomial name | |
| Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Fabricius, 1804) | |
If the colony ever finds themselves without a queen, the worker ants form dominance hierarchies by boxing with their antennae. This leads to a couple high ranking individuals to lay eggs until a new queen returns.
Photos
Colony chamber - shows multiple life stages of P. gracilis nesting in a Sabal palmetto frond
References
1. Volker S. Schmid; Martin Kaltenpoth; Erhard Strohm & Jürgen Heinze (2013) "Worker self-restraint and policing maintain the queen’s reproductive monopoly in a pseudomyrmecine ant pp. 1
