so…i’m walking a trail on ki and i come across this ant. now, ants are very common throughout australia and this, at first, just looks like another ant, albeit a large ant. but, this ain’t know ordinary ant! this ant sees me. and no, i don’t mean he detects an object, like my foot, in his path and attempts to go around it. i mean he/she SEES ME. rather than attempting to go around me or flee from me, it assumes an aggressive, fighting stance. heck, if i was a cop i would have tazzered it! i’ve never seen an ant, SEE ME; let alone act like it wants to fight with me.
turns out its an “inch ant”. and, as you can see in the photo below its well named. they can kill people! no joke. seems they are some sort of evolutionary oddball, part ant and part wasp-like creature. using their rather large mandibles, see photo, they grab ahold of you, and then they sting you, like a wasp, over and over again, using the stinger on their back end. like a wasp or a bee, they inject venom. and, if you are the type to get anaphylaxis, you can go into shock and die.
remember the two rules of australia hiking: (1) stay on the trail; and, (2) don’t touch ANYTHING!
