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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
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Species Myrmecocystus mexicanus

Unknown (nocturnal?) Ant - Myrmecocystus mexicanus - female Ant - Myrmecocystus mexicanus Ant - Myrmecocystus mexicanus Hymenoptera - Myrmecocystus mexicanus long legged ant next to a red harvester ant hill - Myrmecocystus mexicanus - female Myrmecocystus najavo or M. mexicanus? - Myrmecocystus mexicanus Myrmecocystus mexicanus Myrmecocystus mexicanus
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Formicoidea (Ants)
Family Formicidae (Ants)
Subfamily Formicinae
Tribe Lasiini
Genus Myrmecocystus (Honeypot Ants)
No Taxon (subgenus Myrmecocystus)
Species mexicanus (Myrmecocystus mexicanus)
Life Cycle
The ants store honeydew in living honeypots -- specalized workers, called repletes. These ants suspend themselves from gallery roofs within the nest and store the honey in their stomachs. They can store up to 8x their weight. This honeydew comes partly from aphids but mostly from secretions of oak galls cause by a certain species of gall wasps.(1)
Works Cited
1.Interrelationship Between Insects and Plants
Pierre Jolivet. 1998. CRC Press.