Red bull ant
The red bull ant is one of the biggest ants in the world, with a red-brown front, a black back end and long yellow jaws with saw-like teeth. It has very sharp eyes and can spot you from two metres away. It is a brave hunter that even catches bees.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Red bull ant compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Unlike most ants, it finds its way mostly with its eyes, not by smell.
It was one of the very first Australian insects ever collected by a European, back in 1770.
The workers usually hunt alone, not in big teams like many other ants.
It builds small mounds with long tunnels underneath.
Workers are often seen hunting around places where there has been a bushfire.
Most asked questions about Red bull ant
?How big is a red bull ant?
It is about 1.5 to 3 centimetres long, which is huge for an ant.
?What do bull ants eat?
They hunt insects. The grown-ups drink the juices and feed the meat to their babies.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Myrmecia gulosa
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Giant bull ant, Bulldog ant
Where the facts come from
- Myrmecia gulosa (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 Odd1sOutYesRiceGumNo. CC BY 4.0, 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.
Black garden ant
Bullet ant
Pharaoh ant
Argentine ant
Red imported fire ant
Yellow crazy ant
Tan jumping spider
Carolina wolf spider
Southern green stink bug
Red spider mite
Asian cockroach
Box tree moth