Pasture Funnel Ants

It's not their fault they don't have feathers! Doesn't make them any less interesting. And just like the birds, it's good to know what species are about locally at any given time.

There's expertise within the club and beyond on most aspects of our local fauna. Let's tap into it.
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Rod Hobson
Posts: 509
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:03 am

Pasture Funnel Ants

Post by Rod Hobson »

Folks,

I've been getting quite a few inquiries about the conical soil mounds that have been popping up in Toowoomba lawns lately. There is all sorts of speculation about their origins. This includes their being the casts of earthworms or the burrows of emerging cicadas and scarab beetles. They are, in fact, the mounds of a local ant species that is quite common around Toowoomba. The ant in question is the Pasture Funnel Ant (Aphaenogaster pythia). The Pasture Funnel Ant leads a very secluded and unobtrusive life until we get a spate of rainy weather, as we have lately.

These "volcanoes' in house lawns, playing fields, turf farms etc. consist of raised mounds of soil cleaned out of the colonies' subterranean tunnels by the ant workers. The mounds can have several entrances. Although these structures may appear at any time of the year they are particularly evident after rain. Last weekend near home, in a suburban front yard and footpath on the corner of Webb and Ocean Streets, I counted 180+ of these mounds with another 60+ in a nearby footpath.

The Pasture Funnel Ant is a wee emmet growing to 3.5-4.5 mm. It is a pale amber in colour and is incapable of stinging; quite an inoffensive animal. The Pasture Funnel Ant is rarely seen above ground but if you break into one of these mounds you will occasionally find a worker loitering about the mound entrance. It is only a minor pest although large concentrations of mounds can smother lawns or playing fields. This ant is found from coastal, subcoastal Queensland into northern New South Wales.

Regards,
Rod Hobson
Last edited by Rod Hobson on Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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smyliekylie
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:06 pm

Ant mounds

Post by smyliekylie »

Awesome, thanks Rod....learn sup'm new and interesting everyday from this site :D
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