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I'm on a posting spree again... this time with some species identifications for Rel...



I loved this gold ant. He moved fast so I couldn't get a nice and clear shot of him, but I'd never seen a gold ant before. Very cool.




These things are a real bitch to photograph. The hover in and out of the focal plane making it a pain to lock on manually (probably worse in AF) and then when you've got the lock, they dart off to another location and hover there for the same time.

Hey Nnnnsic,

I can help you with the ant ID but Rel would definitely be more help with the others.

Although the photo is not at the right angle, I'm pretty sure the ant is from the genus Polyrhachis and is commonly known as a golden ant or spiny ant. These guys are actually one of my favourite ants (yes, I'm an ant nerd) as depending on the species, they have very cool and unusual spines on their trunk when looked at under a microscope. Polyrhachis are pretty common (up here in Qld anyway) and are harmless. And just for a bit more ant facts, recently one species of Polyrhachis was found to live in mangroves in Nth Australia and have been termed the first known (Australian?) marine ant.

Hope that helps.

Gold ant is great even if it has the trademark blur.