page_title: Myrmecia (ant)
section_title: Vision
hierarchical_section_title: Myrmecia (ant) / Behaviour and ecology / Vision
caption_attribution_description: English: Eye - Worker
context_page_description: Myrmecia is a genus of ants first established by Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804. The genus is a member of the subfamily Myrmeciinae of the family Formicidae. Myrmecia is a large genus of ants, comprising at least 93 species that are found throughout Australia and its coastal islands, while a single species is only known from New Caledonia. One species has been introduced out of its natural distribution and was found in New Zealand in 1940, but the ant was last seen in 1981. These ants are commonly known as "bull ants", "bulldog ants" or "jack jumper" ants, and are also associated with many other common names. They are characterized by their extreme aggressiveness, ferocity, and painful stings. Some species are known for the jumping behavior they exhibit when agitated.
  Species of this genus are also characterized by their elongated mandibles and large compound eyes that provide excellent vision. They vary in colour and size, ranging from 8 to 40 millimetres. Although workers and queens are hard to distinguish from each other due to their similar appearance, males are identifiable by their perceptibly smaller mandibles.
context_section_description: While most ants have poor eyesight, Myrmecia ants have excellent vision. This trait is important to them, since Myrmecia primarily relies on visual cues for navigation. These ants are capable of discriminating the distance and size of objects moving nearly a metre away. Winged alates are only active during the day, as they can see better. Members of a colony have different eye structures due to each individual fulfilling different tasks, and nocturnal species have larger ommatidia in comparison to those that are active during the day. Facet lenses also vary in size; for example, the diurnal species M. croslandi has a smaller lens in comparison to M. nigriceps and M. pyriformis which have larger lenses. Myrmecia ants have three photoreceptors that can see UV light, meaning they are capable of seeing colours that humans cannot. Their vision is said to be better than some mammals, such as cats, dogs or wallabies. Despite their excellent vision, worker ants of this genus find it difficult to find their nests at night, due to the difficulty of finding the landmarks they use to navigate. They are thus more likely to return to their nests the following morning, walking slowly with long pauses.
caption: Closeup view of a bull ant eye
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