page_title: Iridomyrmex
section_title: Diet
hierarchical_section_title: Iridomyrmex / Behaviour and ecology / Diet
caption_attribution_description: English: Iridomyrmex worker with a captured termite
context_page_description: Iridomyrmex, or the rainbow ant is a genus of ant first described by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr in 1862. He placed it in the subfamily Dolichoderinae of the family Formicidae. There are 79 described species and five fossil species. Most of these ants are native to Australia; others are found in Asia and Oceania, and they have been introduced to Brazil, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Fossil species are known from China, France and the United States.
  These ants are known to be an ecologically dominant and important group of ants, but they are sometimes regarded as pests because they disturb soil and enter human houses. Farmers in rural Australia place animal carcasses on meat ant mounds as a method of disposing of them; meat ants will consume the carcass and reduce it to bones in a matter of weeks. Meat ants also engage in ritualised fighting which helps prevent casualties and solve territorial disputes between neighbouring colonies. The largest members of this genus are those of the I. purpureus species group, measuring 8 millimetres.
context_section_description: Iridomyrmex primarily feeds on sweet foods such as nectar and honeydew. They hunt for insects and other ants to feed to their young, and workers are particularly attracted to seeds with elaiosomes. They collect these seeds, remove the elaiosomes, and then discard the seeds. The seedlings that sprout from these seeds benefit from proximity to the aggressive Iridomyrmex ants, giving them a better chance of survival. Colonies sometimes nest in termite mounds, and so the termites are regularly preyed on by Iridomyrmex; no evidence for any kind of relationship (other than a predatory one) is known. Juvenile cane toads are often preyed on, as certain Iridomyrmex species such as I. purpureus and I. ruburrus are immune to the toxins released by the cane toads. As a result, placing Iridomyrmex nests in habitats which house cane toads have been suggested as a method of controlling the cane toad population. The meat ant is the only known ant in Australia that feeds on guano.
caption: Iridomyrmex with a captured termite
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