Species Info General

Other common names include: Wandering Big-headed Ant

Despite being a relative newcomer to the state, with the first detection in 2000, the Navigating Big-headed Ant has quickly become an abundant and widespread species.  In ant surveys conducted by Maui Invasive Species Committee it is one of the ten most commonly detected species on the island.  Because it shows little inclination towards being an indoor pest, however, it isn’t widely encountered by the general public.  As a “big-headed ant”, a small percentage of the workers in a given colony sport outsized heads – these individuals are referred to as “majors” or “soldiers”.  The “minors” on the other hand have quite normal proportionately-sized heads.  As a tiny, reddish ant, however, these minors bear a strong resemblance to Little Fire Ants (Wasmannia auropunctata), so they are referred to as “LFA lookalikes”.  Since an LFA colony does not include any big-headed soldiers, the presence of the occasional big-headed individuals in a line of ants should be enough to reassure you that you are merely dealing with an LFA lookalike.

Deyrup, Davis & Cover (2000) reported that this ant “[o]ccurs in both disturbed areas and mesic or moist woods.  Nests are in rotten wood, hollow twigs and nuts, and in leaf litter; occasionally arboreal.  The diet appears to be small arthropods and scavenged human food.  This species rarely enters houses.”  Naves (1985), wrote that “[t]his species was found nesting in various places such as under boards, at base of oak trees and fence posts, along roots, under palm leaves, inside wall crevices, and rarely in the ground”, adding that “[t]hey feed on seeds and scavenge and prey on small dead or live arthropods.  They forage very close to the nesting sites . . .”.