Jack jumper ant

The jack jumper ant, Myrmecia pilosula, is a large venomous ant native to Australia, found most often in Tasmania and the southeast of the mainland. It belongs to the bull ant genus Myrmecia and the subfamily Myrmeciinae, and was formally described by the British entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858 from specimens collected near Hobart. It takes its common name from the way it hops and leaps when disturbed or hunting. Workers are about 12 to 14 millimetres long, and the queen, at roughly 14 to 16 millimetres, looks much like a worker. The ants are mainly active by day, nest in mounds of gravel and soil in bushland, woodlands and dry open forest, and hunt small insects and other arthropods by sight, killing them with a smooth, barbless sting. The venom is unusually allergenic for an insect venom and causes most ant-sting allergies in Australia, so the species is one of the few ants that can be dangerous to people; allergic patients can be treated with venom immunotherapy.