Today, it's the New York Times. Consider this Q & A:
Q. Can the tiny ants that visit me every spring hop like a flea? Sometimes I look down and suddenly there one is, working its way across my anatomy.
A. It is possible. Several of the estimated 10,000 to 14,000 identified species of ant are capable of hopping or leaping, including at least one with a potentially fatal bite...
The jack jumper ant, Myrmecia pilosula, which is native to Australia, jumps when agitated. Its highly toxic venom allows it to prey upon insects as large as wasps.
Jerdon's jumping ant, an Indian species that has leaping in its Latin name, Harpegnathos saltator, is apparently unique in using its jumping mechanism as a normal means of locomotion, not just as an escape mechanism...
Another species, Odontomachus bauri, the trap-jaw ant, uses its overdeveloped jaws to propel it into the air, sometimes at 145 miles per hour, according to a study published in 2006 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What question-answerer C. Claiborne Ray misses is the context of the query. The species cited (Myrmecia pilosula, Harpegnathos saltator, and Odontomachus bauri) really are jumpers. But jumping is a rare behavior among ants, and these are special cases where a unique ecology favors jumping. These species are also relative giants among ants, a centimeter or more in length, and they are not commonly found in houses, nor are they found in temperate North America.
But the question isn't an academic Can some ants jump?
Rather, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, it's
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'VE GOT ANTS!!!! ON ME!!!!! ANTS!!!! HELP!!! WTF!!!??? ANTS!!! DID THEY JUMP, OR SOMETHING?
The answer to that question is No.
Common house-infesting ants do not jump, so any ants you may find on yourself either crawled there or accidentally fell on you. We're not yet facing a leaping ant apocalypse.
(unlikely to be in your house)
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It seems the NY Times writer just wanted to show off his Googling skills and missed the point, good observation.
What is also interesting about these Australian ants is:
The jack jumper ant(Myrmecia pilosula) genome is contained on a single pair of chromosomes. Also the highest polyploidy (in the Australian Hymenoptera ) AFAIK is ( diploids=84 ).
What bothers me is the lousy common name "Jerdon's jumping ant." I noticed you used "Indian jumping ant" for your picture caption. This is the name I've been using too, though I suspect Harpegnathos doesn't always respect national boundaries.
These are some adorable little fellas you have on your blog!
Did I catch the writer committing one of my least favorite Howlers Against Hymenoptera? By which I mean: Did Ray write "bite" instead of "sting"?
I mean, of course I know that ants bite; I've had a Camponotus pennsylvanicus major worker wrap herself around one of my toes and inflict a decisive CHOMP when I accidentally kicked her while I was walking barefoot in the kitchen. But if Ray is talking about the mechanism by which Myrmecia and numerous other aculeates can envenomate prey or enemies, he needs a comprehensive refresher course on which end of the ant is up.
"We're not yet facing a leaping ant apocalypse."
Shhhhh! Don't leak the plan!
Actually, I jest. It's the insect apocalypse. And you did not read that last sentence.
When I find ants on my arms and shoulders, it's because they've
climbed a tree and fallen off the leaves. They especially like climbing a eucalypt beside my house (Melbourne, Australia) - I presume they're foraging.
I hereby respectfully nominate "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'VE GOT ANTS!!!! ON ME!!!!! ANTS!!!! HELP!!! WTF!!!??? ANTS!!!"
... for the new national anthem of Australia. (aka "Ants Australia Fair")
I agree with Julie, 'a potentially fatal bite' sucks - not just the hype, but the abysmal ignorance on display from their experts. Potentially, if you were highly allergic to the saliva or cuticle you could go into anaphylactic shock and die from the bite of any ant â more likely if you bit them though. But you are far more likely to die from the bite of a mosquito or tick and only likely to die from a Myrmecia sting if you are allergic.
As I recall though, jumper stings are only minor agonies compared to bulldog ant stings.
If I recall correctly, Myrmecia pilosula kill the most amount of people in my state of Australia (Tasmania) of any animal. Something like 1 in 30 people go into anaphylactic shock when they're bitten by them, and they're found pretty much everywhere outside, so allergic people getting bitten is fairly common. Indeed I would assume that almost the entire population of people who have lived here for over a decade have been bitten at least once.
Anyway I was mainly commenting because it's awesome that my local ants got a mention :D
*ahem*
Bite -> mandibles -> no injection of venom -> no pain, no allergic response
Sting -> stinger -> venom -> pain
The trouble with Myrmecia is the sting, not the bite.
[/pedant]
The difference between a bite and a sting is important, especially in terms of allergic responses. I don't see it as a pedantic difference on a science blog or in a Q&A on the NYT Science page. Using bite when they should be using sting means whoever answered this question (presumably C. CLAIBORNE RAY) is either condescending to their audience or has too little understanding of the problem to be answering the question or both. But then I guess the misinformation on jumping makes that clear too.
(wiping apple juice off laptop screen)
Probably not as geography-specific as you think. I'm sure I heard similar lyrics shrieked --loudly enough to drown out Robin Trower on vinyl, in fact -- from the window of a Boston-area dorm room on a Saturday night in the mid-1970s.
Ainsley-
Ha! I hereby nominate you for the new comment of the week award, which I just made up.
Oops, sorry. Of course when Myrmecia sting people, they bite their skin with their mandibles for grip - so my comment was still somewhat accurate :P
Its funny how the jack jumper and the harpegnathos are from completely different ant families, yet they look so similar and have the rare trait of being able to 'jump'. Have a look at this video on the jack jumper http://bit.ly/bELrfp. Does any one know if all Myrmecia sp. can jump or is it just the M. pilosula? intrigued...Tim