November 21, 2013

A Cicada Attacked by Bull Ants

Filed under: Video — Dan @ 6:21 am

Poor, poor cicada — never had a chance. Here’s a video of bull ants attacking a molting cicada:

via Twitter

There's no wonder a Bull Ant bite hurts! Cicada Attacked by Bull Ants @Myrmecos @cicadamania http://t.co/qbfldbbqgs

— Anne Brophy (@BrophyAnne) November 20, 2013

Comments (3)

3 Comments

Athena says:

July 19, 2014 at 2:50 pm

I found a cicada being attacked by ants today. The cicada was wriggling to get away but couldn’t get off it’s back. I used a stick so it could hold onto it and raised it off the ground and flicked the ants off with a smaller twig. I walked to a further area where I couldn’t find a presence of ants and placed the cicada in a tree. He stayed there for a couple hours but I just returned and now it’s gone. Do you think it survived and flew off? There is no indication of any animals in the area as well.
Robin says:

December 19, 2013 at 11:35 pm

Well shot…the first ant appears to have injected its sting immediately after access. Having been stung by bull-ants, I can vouch for the pain, but now wonder what the compound does to the cicada’s system. Looks like anaesthesis, judging by how quickly the cicada stopped any further movement.But just before the ant reached it, it appeared to have been aware of it and stopped still.
The rest is simple butchery and doesnt seem to have as much collaboration as the meatants we have around NSW.
R. Sanders says:

December 12, 2013 at 7:47 am

Poor guy. Too bad he didn’t get to fly, sing or mate first.

It’s amazing how fast ants can descend on a hatching nymph. They’re often covered before they can even exit the shell. Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a cicada-specific pheromone that demands quick action.

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