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Atlas / Library / Formicidae / Bull ant / bulldog ant
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Formicidae

Bull ant / bulldog ant

Myrmecia sp. (e.g. M. gulosa)

Part of this is not on the page we cite. We opened it on 10 Aug 2026 and some of the degrees above are not stated there. The values above may still be right, but we cannot show you where they came from, and nobody here has checked them against a second source. Anything about a sick animal goes to a qualified exotic vet, not to a page. en.wikipedia.org

Photograph: Elias Freyhof · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Bull ant / bulldog ant is diurnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

Arboreal · temperate · middlingFrom the sheet: 20–26°C, humidity 40–60%

The way of life is written in this sheet, word for word. The climate words summarise the two figures above them, they do not add to them.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Check your setup against this sheet I keep one 123 plants usable with this species
Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/myrmecia-sp-e-g-m-gulosa

‹ All husbandry guides
Temperature20–26 °C
Humidity40–60 %
Diet2–4 days

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
20–26°Ambient

One ambient band, 20–26°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states20-26C

Humidity

40–60%Target RH

The sheet states40-60%

Enclosure
Semi-claustral founding (feed queen); soil nest + escape-proof outworld

Identity

Adult size

1.75 m1.5–4 cm
1520100400 cm
1.5–4 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Hymenoptera
Origin
IUCN / CITES
Not evaluated; CITES not yet in our data (but AU export tightly controlled)
Difficulty
Advanced (experts only)
Commonality
Iconic but rarely/legally hard to obtain outside AU
Adult size
Worker 15-40mm (huge); queen to ~40mm
Lifespan
Queen several yrs; small colonies
Growth rate
Slow
Activity & niche
Ground/arboreal predator, diurnal, superb vision
Temperament
Very aggressive, jumps, stings readily
Venom / defense
Powerful STING (medically significant; can cause anaphylaxis) + big jaws

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
20-26C
Humidity
40-60%
Min. enclosure
Semi-claustral founding (feed queen); soil nest + escape-proof outworld
Substrate
Soil/sand nest; leaf-litter outworld
Hides / decor / water
Hides, hunting space; water dish

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 2.3–3.5 dAs the sheet states
12Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesLive insects + sugar/nectar · Protein 2-3x/week; sugar always

Staple food
Live insects + sugar/nectar
Feeding frequency
Protein 2-3x/week; sugar always

Behaviour and handling

HandlingNever handle - dangerous sting
CommunalSingle colony; do not mix
Defense / stress signsHead-on tracking, jumping, sting-first defense

Reproduction

Reproduction
Semi-claustral founding after nuptial flight; queen hunts while founding

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsFounding failure, feeding refusal
Red flags / quarantine
SignsLegality: AU restricts export - verify source; severe sting; never release

Good to know

  • Has the best eyesight of any ant and will track and leap at a threat from a distance

What it needs

A thermometerbecause temp — 20-26C
A hygrometerbecause humidity — 40-60%
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « Semi-claustral founding (feed queen); soil nest + escape-proof outworld »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

en.wikipedia.organtwiki.org

Others in this group

Asian weaver ant (green tree ant)Oecophylla smaragdinaNicobar carpenter antCamponotus nicobarensisAsian spiny/golden weaver antPolyrhachis divesAsian marauder/power antCarebara diversaAsian jumping antHarpegnathos venatorBlack garden antLasius nigerMediterranean harvester antMessor barbarusFellah carpenter antCamponotus fellah

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.