第 1016 號，共 1 402 號

Florida harvester ant

Pogonomyrmex badius

只是會痛會痛，但不會對你造成嚴重傷害。

螫吃：每樣都來一點

The Florida harvester ant is a relatively large ant that lives in the sandy scrub and coastal areas of Florida and the Atlantic coast of the eastern United States. It is the only Pogonomyrmex harvester ant found on the US east coast. Its sting is painful and highly toxic, but the ant is shy and rarely stings unless it is trapped against skin.1

分布在

Florida and the Atlantic coastal plain of the eastern United States1

北美洲

首頁

It nests in well-drained sandy soils in Florida scrub, xeric shrublands, grasslands, woodlands and intact coastal dunes. It prefers open sandy ground with sparse plants that gets full sun, so people are most likely to see its nest mounds in these open sandy areas.1

長度

6,3 mm 到 1,2 cm (0,2 in 到 0,5 in)1

最高速度

大約 0,16 km/h（0,1 mph）

在陸地上, 粗略估計

牠吃什麼？

It eats mainly seeds and insects. Workers prefer protein-rich insect prey over seeds, but seeds wider than 1 to 1.4 mm are too big for workers to crack open.1

Florida harvester ant 的照片 — Florida harvester ant。照片：Judy Gallagher。 CC BY 4.0, iNaturalist.

怎麼認出牠

A relatively large harvester ant. Workers range from 6.35 mm to 9.52 mm long.1
The nest has a flat mound with no plants growing around it, decorated with bits of debris and charred plant matter.1
Queens and the largest workers, called majors, have disproportionately large heads.1
It is a highly active ant that is out during the day.1

毒液力量

螫

毒液從螫針出來。

牠的毒液有什麼作用？

Its stinger delivers a potent, painful neurotoxic venom, which attacks the nerves. The venom is very toxic: in laboratory tests on mice, the dose that killed half the mice (the LD50) was 0.42 micrograms per gram of body weight, which is comparable to the most toxic snake venoms. Each sting delivers only a small amount of venom.1

牠對人有多危險？

對人的危險: 疼痛可能會非常痛，但幾乎從來不會很嚴重。

Dozens of stings are needed to cause potential harm to a healthy adult. The ant is docile and reluctant to sting unless forced to, usually when it is trapped against the skin.1

牠害怕時會做什麼？

It stings when it is trapped against the skin, and is otherwise reluctant to sting.1

如果牠螫人

清洗並冷敷螫傷處。
如果傷者呼吸困難、臉部或喉嚨腫脹，或覺得快要昏倒，這就是過敏急症：打緊急電話。

一定要先打緊急電話（112、000、911）。這是一般急救指引，不是醫療建議。急救基本知識

注意安全

絕對不要碰、抓或捉弄野生動物，就算是很小的動物，就算牠看起來在睡覺或已經死了也一樣。
給牠空間。如果遇到了，保持冷靜，慢慢往後退，讓牠自己離開。
如果被牠螫了：保持冷靜，保持不動，打緊急電話（112、000、911）或趕快去醫院。記住牠的樣子，有照片會很有幫助。

牠不是想來抓你。牠用毒液來捕捉食物或保護自己，而且牠更想躲起來。更多安全知識

在世界上的哪裡？

非洲亞洲歐洲北美洲南美洲澳洲與大洋洲

牠有多大？

牠有多長？

小到可以坐在你的指甲上

Florida harvester ant 跟「你」比起來有多大？

只是在你的瀏覽器裡做算術。什麼都不會儲存，也不會傳送到任何地方。

牠有多快？

一隻花園蝸牛 大約 0,05 km/h (0,03 mph)

Florida harvester ant 大約 0,16 km/h (0,1 mph)

一隻陸龜 大約 0,3 km/h (0,19 mph)

值得知道

小知識

Its stinger is barbed. When it stings, the stinger and venom sac can stay stuck in the skin and keep pumping venom, and the ant dies because its insides are damaged when the stinger is pulled out.1

Mature nests are very deep, usually 2.5 to 3.0 metres underground, with seeds stored in large flat granaries about 40 to 100 cm below the surface.1

Unlike most harvester ants, this species often moves its entire nest once a year, relocating about 4 to 10 metres along an established foraging trail.1

A colony must reach about 700 or more workers before it becomes sexually mature and starts producing winged reproductives.1

Mating takes place on the ground. Males fly in from other nests to mate with queens on the surface of the parent nest, while hundreds of workers swarm around the nest.1

Some ants can be infected by a parasitic fungus, Myrmicinosporidium durum, which turns the ant's outer body a near black colour.1

給毒液專家

學名: Pogonomyrmex badius
類群: 螞蟻
家人: Formicidae2
排序: Hymenoptera
各大洲: 北美洲
寶寶: A colony starts when a newly mated queen founds a new nest. She does not feed outside the nest, relying on her fat reserves and wing muscles to raise her brood.1
對人的危險: 2 / 5: 疼痛3