Indian jumping ant
The Indian jumping ant is a long, reddish and black ant with big eyes and long jaws. It does something most ants cannot: it jumps. It hunts alone or in small groups, mostly in the cool morning.
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Fun facts
It can jump about 10 centimetres far and 2 centimetres high, using its middle and back legs together.
Its nest has only a few ants, not thousands like many other ants.
When the queen gets old, some workers can take over and lay eggs instead.
The ants close the door of their nest every evening and open it again in the morning.
The nest has a funnel inside that helps keep rain from flooding it.
Most asked questions about Indian jumping ant
?Can ants really jump?
Yes. The Indian jumping ant can jump about 10 centimetres to escape or to catch flying insects.
?What does the Indian jumping ant eat?
It hunts insects, which it often catches alive.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Harpegnathos saltator
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Jerdon's jumping ant
Where the facts come from
- Harpegnathos saltator (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Kalyan Varma. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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