Talk:Jack jumper ant

Antidote??
Unless I'm mistaken about how allergies work, there is no such thing as an antidote for something which provokes an allergic reaction, as is the case with bee/wasp/ant venom. If there was an antidote for bee stings, I think we all would have heard about it by now. Epinephrine is not an "antidote", it is a treatment, and apitherapy is not an "antidote" for stings, either. I find it pretty implausible that one can take ant venom and use it to make any sort of anti-venom, given the mode of action of insect venoms in general; they do NOT work like snake venoms. I am tempted to simply remove the statement, but will leave it in for now, and see if anyone can provide an explanation. If nothing is forthcoming, I'll return and delete it - no sense spreading more misinformation. Dyanega 23:25, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I've done some research, have changed the text to reflect the reality of the situation, and given a citation. Immunotherapy is not the same an antivenom. Dyanega 23:50, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

I saw a episode on National Geographic Channel about these ants; a "Dr Simon Brown" was developing an anti-venom utilizing the ants' venom somehow. I guess it's not an antidote per say, but rather as the previous commentator said an form of immunotherapy.

How do they jump?
This article could use a sentence or two describing these ants' jumping motion. From reading the article, one cannot tell how far/high they jump, or in what manner. — Epastore 01:11, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Although I have not conducted rigourous measurement, I would say they are able to spring 10-15cm. They seem to have very good eyesight, as I have noticed an immediate change in behaviour if I get within 20cm of one - they sway from side to side, suggesting they are using parallax to measure distance. It is to the loss of science that I have not hung around to see how accurate this measurement is!

I also want to point out that "Jumper Ants" matching the description of this article are found at Buderim Mountain on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, and Maleny on the Blackall Range inland of the Sunshine Coast. --202.155.162.163 (talk) 09:13, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Living on the coastal plain near Taree, I've hunted down a few nests of these. They do indeed jump over 10cm, and the bite is quite painful, having been bitten 10+ times. The venom is in the bee/wasp effects range, but I do not react to either those or the ant bite, but still get quite the painful bite.

I've found digging up a nest, including eggs, and leaving it overnight, will see the nest emptied within 12 or so hrs, and moved. The shortest move I have seen them embark on was from a rotten, hollow root to under a sheet of tin merely 1 metre away. Following the single roamers/forager ants to find their nests can be a multiple hour process...

Grelnar (talk) 05:53, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Out of Date Link
While doing research on these ants and their venom, I clicked on the link in the second resource at the bottom of the page. I ended up with a "page not found" instead of what I was looking for. Apparently, the link is out of date. I suggest finding a replacement quickly before someone else ends up where I did. Thanks.&#91;&gt;{&gt;Drakonis&lt;}&lt;&#93; (talk) 17:07, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Queen ant or Male?
I'm pretty sure that the winged ant in the picture towards the bottom is male. In primitive ants like Myrmecia, the queens and workers are structurally almost identical, and can be distinguished only by the structure of the thorax. Thus, in Myrmecia, queens have the large mandibles that are characteristic of all the species in this genus. These individuals, however, have small, almost nonfunctional mandibles not suited for the work done by the females, and thus are males. Besides Myrmecia, there are many other ant genera and species where this is obvious. See, , and. Thanks. Jchen2011 (talk) 00:36, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Expansion
I am expanding this article rapidly. There is a huge amount of information that has not been added. I will be working on this in the next few days, so all additional edits and comments are welcome. I will be first working on the description, as there is information on the worker, queen and male, and among other features. I have some sources that will be useful of course. Burklemore1 (talk) 09:45, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Work
I have done some considerable work on here, and I'm almost done with all the info I can find on this ant, though I am sure there is a lot more out there as this ant has been well studied. All I plan to do is find extra citations for some particular sentences, expand the taxonomy section and possibly record the jumping behavior of the ant and upload it onto the article to show an example of their jumping, it would make a great addition to the article. I intend to nominate this article for a GA review, as I was successful with my first main work at Myrmecia nigrocincta which is now a good article, and this one has been greatly expanded with tonnes of new and useful information. Burklemore1 (talk) 04:05, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Just about done
In the past few days I have added huge amounts of information with many sources added. I am just about done with all available information on the Internet (that I know of), and will do some small tweaks and fixes, which then I will nominate it for GA and fix any issue that the reviewer finds. Burklemore1 (talk) 02:00, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Peer Review soon!
I am focusing my attention back onto this article so it can finally meet the GA requirement within the future. Currently, I am working section by section on improving the grammar, minimising transitions and depleting the use of passive voice and more. The article went through a new series of mass expansion after its "failure", so more issues, grammatical errors, confusion and redundancies may be brought up when in peer review, or even in the GA review once current issues are solved themselves. It would be awesome seeing this article on ever achieving FA status, but for the current time it isn't even near the level of GA status, so improving the article in general and solving the issues given in the previous review are a priority right now. After, I will request a second copy-edit to fix up things I have missed in new sentences and such. I especially encourage people particularly in the medical and genetic fields to edit if there are complex and misunderstand-able sentences and statements. Thanks! Burklemore1 (talk) 11:12, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Progress so far
There has been a number of improvements on this article recently. The section "desensitisation and prevention" seems more clearer and more detailed on the desensitisation itself, and all binomial names have been italicised. Article has also been reassessed to a 'B-class' status, extra relevant info has been added, more sources provided and grammatical errors seem minimal to my liking, but a copyedit has been requested. More issues from the previous GA nomination have been solved too. Based on the issues raised in the GA review, only six remain unaddressed, while eight other issues now addressed were done after review. Peer review should be done soon. Burklemore1 (talk) 17:58, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Specialist?
From the prey paragraph: "These ants are specialist predators,[59] omnivores[26] and scavengers". Not sure where's usual to draw the line but reading about the diversity of food they eat I wouldn't call them specialists. ABMvandeBult (talk) 10:02, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I have removed the specialist predator part. Thanks for the comment. Burklemore1 (talk) 05:30, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

A few notes on images and captions
Done. Done. Removed the image, but unfortunately no free image of a queen is available. Done. Done.
 * In many images, it seems redundant to state "A jack jumper ant...". As the article is about jack jumpers, it's more concise to simply state "a worker..." unless there are other ant species in images.
 * The captions instructing the reader to note something seem like a somewhat improper, commanding tone, and it may not be apparent what the reader is to infer by noting. E.g. rather than "note the size difference", an approach to passively and clearly describe the image might read "a worker approaching a much larger queen". The holotype caption might read "Original holotype specimen (abdomen missing) of Ponera ruginoda.", or even relegate that info to the Commons file description if the absence of an abdomen not salient to the article.
 * Regarding the worker and queen image: it would be more appropriate to include an image of a jack jumper queen, with or without worker, rather than the apples-to-oranges comparison with a different species which is not discussed in Description.
 * The close-up image of mandibles in the Venom section visually implies that jaws deliver venom. A close-up of the sting would be better, and the mandible image more appropriate in the description section where the mandibles are directly discussed.
 * "Jack jumper worker foraging. It appears poised for jumping." Is it though? The second sentence seems speculative and extraneous.--Animalparty! (talk) 18:03, 16 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the comments, I did not see this until now. Will get onto it. Burklemore1 (talk) 05:29, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Blue
The image at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_jumper_in_anthill_2.JPG appears to show blue ants. The article says they "can be black or blackish-red in colour[sic]." Is the image enhanced with false color to show the ants more clearly? 173.174.85.204 (talk) 16:03, 10 November 2015 (UTC)Eric
 * They look black/black-ish on my screen. With blue I assume you mean black-ish + deep blue and not "blue blue"? Is your monitor calibrated? jonkerz ♠talk 18:11, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Doubt it M. pilosula is a very common species around my area and not once have I seen a blue one. My only guess is that they are infected with some parasite that changes the colour if they appear to be blue, but I highly doubt it. Another possibility is there are variants (Iridomyrmex purpureus and Camponotus consobrinus are good examples), but I don't think such thing occurs in any Myrmecia species. Burklemore1 (talk) 16:49, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Repeated repetitions co-occur repeatedly
I am struck by how often the same assertions are duplicated from one section to another. Even within the same section. And especially when we get to their dreaded feared frightening stings. :-) It is a problem generally at WP, but some articles are exceptionally accomplished at it. Shenme (talk) 00:22, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
 * That would be my own fault (2014 me that is). If you want this to be fixed we can go through it and I'll do any additional polishing. What's more frightening is when swarms of them are charging at you while disregarding their own life. ;) Burklemore1 (talk) 17:33, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

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Tasmanian Jack Jumper Ant Behaviour
There is no information or study as to why you observe these insects during the month of February, dragging another alive ant of the same species to their nest, I presume (have not been able to follow them). Is this a mating ritual, kidnapping,foraging, enlisting? Any informed view is appreciated. 2001:8003:176F:4200:D802:209:6B80:CA75 (talk) 01:01, 1 March 2023 (UTC)