Leptomyrmex

is a large, leggy, often colorful genus restricted to eastern Australia, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. The skittish movements and long legs of these distinctive insects give them the common name "spider ants". Some workers in each nest specialize as living storage containers called repletes, their abdomens greatly distended.

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Leptomyrmex ruficeps spider ant holding her gaster in the raised position, allowing her to dispense her defensive chemistry forward over her head.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex ruficeps spider ant.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex rufipes. A spider ant worker, gaster raised characteristically above her body.

Mungkan Kandju National Park, Queensland, Australia

A Leptomyrmex rufipes forager grasps the wing of a grasshopper carcass to drag it back to her nest. Ants are important scavengers in terrestrial ecosystems.

Mungkan Kandju National Park, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex rufipes workers cooperate to bring a grasshopper carcass back to their nest. These large, leggy insects are some of the most gracile ants in the world; note the impressive spread of the antennae of the foreground worker.

Mungkan Kandju National Park, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex rufipes workers cooperate to bring a grasshopper carcass back to their nest.

Mungkan Kandju National Park, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex unicolor

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia

Leptomyrmex ruficeps spider ant holding her gaster in the raised position, allowing her to dispense her defensive chemistry forward over her head.

Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia

Canon EOS 7D |

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Keywords: leptomyrmex dolichoderinae spider ant ant macro gaster

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Leptomyrmex

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