ItalianTermiteMan
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2023
- Messages
- 146
While my true passion are termites (i know, real shocker there) is sadly exceedingly difficult to obtain nice exotic species to keep, and so i supplement those that i have with pet ants.
One of them i find especially cute: Acanthomyrmex cfr thailandensis.
This is a genus of strongly dimorphic south-east Asian ants very notable for the truly massive heads of their majors, which in several species (like thailandensis, mizunoi or glabfemoralis) can make up a whopping 70% of the animal's total volume! Other interesting traits are the strongly sculpted bodies and the large thoracic spines, four in minor workers and two in queens and majors, which gives the name to the genus: Acanthomyrmex literally means "thorn-ants" in Greek. These small and tranquil ants forms extremely tiny colonies of around 200 members and thus need very little space in captivity, while being a very peculiar and cute species. Despite the "Pheidole-like" looks their majors and dimorphism grants they are not particularly close relatives and are instead much more related to the so-called acrobat ants (Crematogaster), while their closest genus is (as far as i know) the monomorphic Myrmecina, some species of which can also be found both in Europe and north America.
On a personal level, i also find the similarity of their name with Acanthotermes (one of my favorite termite genera, obviously unobtainable) a plus... a man can always dream
My A. cfr thailandensis colony. This ugly pic is not the most recent, but at least you can
see the various forms of this ant relatively well (queen is center-right).
This pic is more recent than the prevuous one, though quite messier! Note the relatively
small size of these ants, with majors that despite being extemely bulky measure only around 5,5 mm.
A more decent pic of a major and minor of Acanthomyrmex cfr thailandensis, this time dead ones. Here you can at least
appreciate the spines typical of the genus!
One of them i find especially cute: Acanthomyrmex cfr thailandensis.
This is a genus of strongly dimorphic south-east Asian ants very notable for the truly massive heads of their majors, which in several species (like thailandensis, mizunoi or glabfemoralis) can make up a whopping 70% of the animal's total volume! Other interesting traits are the strongly sculpted bodies and the large thoracic spines, four in minor workers and two in queens and majors, which gives the name to the genus: Acanthomyrmex literally means "thorn-ants" in Greek. These small and tranquil ants forms extremely tiny colonies of around 200 members and thus need very little space in captivity, while being a very peculiar and cute species. Despite the "Pheidole-like" looks their majors and dimorphism grants they are not particularly close relatives and are instead much more related to the so-called acrobat ants (Crematogaster), while their closest genus is (as far as i know) the monomorphic Myrmecina, some species of which can also be found both in Europe and north America.
On a personal level, i also find the similarity of their name with Acanthotermes (one of my favorite termite genera, obviously unobtainable) a plus... a man can always dream
My A. cfr thailandensis colony. This ugly pic is not the most recent, but at least you can
see the various forms of this ant relatively well (queen is center-right).
This pic is more recent than the prevuous one, though quite messier! Note the relatively
small size of these ants, with majors that despite being extemely bulky measure only around 5,5 mm.
A more decent pic of a major and minor of Acanthomyrmex cfr thailandensis, this time dead ones. Here you can at least
appreciate the spines typical of the genus!
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