Serious Ant

Camponotus singularis

Very little information about this ant, in fact it has taken me months just to identify it. Even finally having the correct scientific name for the beastie hasn't helped, some serious scientific ant sites have left the description and image sections blank.

This is not a rare ant, I see them every day and I have blipped a worker before (17th Aug, 26th Sep, 28th Sep, 1st Oct, 4th Oct) but this is the first time I have managed to get a reasonable shot of the soldier of the species.

Explanation - a nest generally has three types or castes of ants:

Queen - rarely seen, sits in the nest and lays eggs.

Male - rarely seen, a small, winged ant, mates with the queen once and dies.

Worker - this is the ant caste that we see daily. It forages and collects the food for the nest.

The above is true for all British species of ant, but some Asian species have a fourth caste, the soldier ant. This much larger specimen, usually with a grossly oversized head, its main job is to protect the nest and its occupants. It has been written that the large head is used to plug the entrance to the nest from marauders, not so sure about that though!

The workers that I have blipped before were around half inch long. This soldier ant was easily ¾ inch long. I chose this image because you can see a normal sized ant near by for a direct comparison. This monster ant is big enough to pinch a chip off your plate.

Dave