Kiss of death

After the sensory overload of Europe and all the Blip ops that we saw over there, it's hard to come back to the more prosaic life of home and hearth.  I try to look at our surroundings through the eyes of a stranger, but everything is too familiar.

So when all else fails I go to the Belair National Park just up the road, and honestly, no matter what the day or the weather, there's always something interesting to see.

Today for example, it's much cooler but still very windy so not much in the way of flying insects.  A few butterflies but very flighty and impossible to get close.  And I did see an enormous flying insect - I think a massive fly, but again could not get close enough to get an image.  Then I saw a huge rabbit bounding across my path, but by the time I lifted my jaw back off the ground, it was long gone.  Never seen a babbit up there before.

But I did spot this very very large ant, taking on a bee - and the bee lost.  I certainly wouldn't like to be bitten by this critter, it must have been more than a centimetre long.

I've just done a bit of research and I'm fairly certain it's a jack jumper ant, (Myrmecia pilosula) and after having read the info on it, I am very glad indeed it had its little mandibles full of a bee.

If you see what I mean.

With colonies through areas of the Adelaide Hills, South East, Kangaroo Island and parts of the southern Fleurieu and Eyre Peninsula, the Jumping Jack ant is an aggressive, territorial ant that provides a nasty surprise for unsuspecting passersby.

The Australian native ant has been present in the country for the past 30 million years.  It is now restricted to the cooler areas of the country, like our own Mount Lofty ranges.

The 12mm long ant is able to leap distances up to 10cm, and due to its highly aggressive nature will quite often launch towards its unsuspecting victim to deliver a painful sting.

The Jumping Jacks target by sight, instead of scent like other biting ants.

Delivering its sting in a similar way to the honey bee, the Jack Jumper ant lands and clinches its victim between its front pincers before delivering venom through a stinger at the base of its abdomen.

Of the reported serious sting reactions in South Australia, the Jack Jumpers ant is second only to the common honey bee.