Amblyopone saundersi
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| Amblyopone saundersi | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Amblyopone saundersi Forel, 1892 |
Amblyopone saundersi is a ponerine ant of the tribe Amblyoponini, endemic to New Zealand. It is found in native forest, in litter, and under logs, throughout the country.
Amblyopone saundersi has long slender mandibles with teeth along the inner margins. Colonies are rarely encountered and foragers not seen above ground in daylight. Ants of the worker caste have an outstretched length of 3 to 5 mm; short 12-segmented antennae; long and slender mandibles, usually with 8 teeth and a pointed tooth at their tips; six to ten clypeal teeth; and coloration varing from light yellow to dark brown.
These ants are sluggish in movement and able to feign death, workers nesting and foraging predominantly beneath leaf litter, stones and rotting logs. The short antennae and narrow body are clearly adaptations for a cryptobiotic way of life. Nests are extremely simple — merely a shallow hollow in the soil — and the colonies small, comprising only 10 to 30 workers (a basal feature). It is essentially a nomadic species, hence the simplicity and essentially temporary nature of the nests.
Workers have an effective sting, used to immobilise prey (chilopods, beetle larvae and other small arthropods. Queens forage for food for the first batch of emerging workers, another primitive feature. Larvae are provided with pieces of prey, instead of regurgitated food as in more advanced ant species. Each last instar larva spins a distinctive yellow cocoon in which it pupates.
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