A sampling of ants from Kwazulu-Natal

Leptogenys attenuata

In spite of the southern winter, the coastal forests of Kwazulu-Natal had plenty of ant activity to keep me occupied last week. In addition to the beautiful Polyrhachis I posted earlier, here are portraits of a few of the species I encountered.

Crematogaster tricolor

Platythyrea cooperi

Myrmicaria natalensis

Plectroctena mandibularis

Anochetus faurei

Oecophylla longinoda (African Tailor Ant)

Cataulacus brevisetosus

Dorylus helvolus

Pachycondyla (Bothroponera) mlanjiensis

Atopomyrmex mocquerysi

Pheidole megacephala (Big-Headed Ant)

Solenopsis geminata (introduced from South America)

More like this

That's a stunning collection Alex...

Yay! Some beautiful African ants!

That's a fair fist-full of Ponerines there.....does that reflect what you saw active?

I had to come back and take a second look at these. The Dorylus helvolus worker is fantastic! I'm looking forward to seeing the full set on Myrmecos.com.

Kate- It's a mix of what was active and what I decided would look good on white. I ended up photographing about 30 or so species in total, only doing these portrait shots for about a third of them. Some things I found but aren't pictured here are Tetramorium, Tetraponera, Technomyrmex, Pyramica, Lepisiota, Plagiolepis, and lots of other species of Pheidole and Crematogaster. I would have liked to have done more on the savannah fauna, but being winter and all I stuck to the coastal forests.

Scott- That might take a while. I still have to do the rebuild of myrmecos.net and I'll probably hold off on most of the African photos until the new site is done. And that won't happen until after the move.

Wow - what incredible picture you have there!

BELAS FOTOS DE INSETOS! SOU ADMIRADOR DE FORMIGAS, E AQUI NO BRASIL HÃ VÃRIAS ESPÃCIES.

BYE!