Southern ant with its head in a Parsonsia flower; its hairy abdomen is at the top of the picture, head (also hairy) at the bottom. |
Parsonsia heterophylla, Karori November 2012. |
Muehlenbeckia australis, Karori, November 2012. |
It's hard enough to identify plants from photos and we don't like being asked, so I'm grateful to Professor Phil Lester for telling me this is probably Monomorium antarcticum, the southern ant. It's a common native species, or more likely a species complex. My pictures don't show the mandibles and the segments of the antennae, which are needed for a formal identification.
Head to head, two ants probe the same flower. |
Reference.
Heine, E.M 1937. Observations on the pollination of New Zealand flowering plants. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 67: 133—148.
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