Ancestors

Toot

Written by llewelly on 2025-01-20 at 12:36

a new episode of strange animals podcast, by @KateShaw is out, and it's about the fire ant and the goliath bird-eater spider, two cool arthropods ... although the fire ant is invasive and a huge problem in many places. : )

https://strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net/2025/01/20/episode-416-the-heaviest-tarantula-and-the-bitey-est-ant/

[#]ants

[#]spiders

[#]animals

[#]biogeography

[#]arthopods

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Descendants

Written by llewelly on 2025-01-20 at 12:59

@KateShaw

minor technical pedantry: the above podcast has venom and bite of fire ants all mixed together, but the venom is injected by a stinger on the back end of the ant, and the ant's mandibles on the front end don't have any venom. But in practice, the ant uses its mandibles to clamp onto your flesh, and then uses its stinger to sting you repeatedly. So the bite and the venom are separated by a whole ant-length, a distance smaller than the swelling you'll get from the sting. Thus confusion.

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Written by Kate Shaw on 2025-01-20 at 16:12

@llewelly OMG I DID NOT KNOW THAT SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT well, time to add to the updates episode

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Written by llewelly on 2025-01-20 at 16:25

@KateShaw

here's my source, if you need it: "Unlike many other ants, which bite and then spray acid on the wound, fire ants bite only to get a grip and then sting (from the abdomen) and inject a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin, a compound from the class of piperidines."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ant#Behavior

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