Harpegnathos saltator
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Harpegnathos saltator, sometimes called the Indian jumping ant or Jerdon's jumping ant, is a species of ant found in India. They have long mandibles and have the ability to leap a few inches. They are large-eyed and active predators that hunt mainly in the early morning. The colonies are small and the difference between workers and queens is very slight.
They are also unusual amongst ants in that the queen–worker difference is very limited and some workers can mate and lay fertilized eggs just like the queen. These workers are termed gamergates. New colonies are founded independently by single queens, and on aging, they are replaced by several gamergates. The gamergates copulate with males from their own colonies, and being inbred, are related to the original founding queen. Colonies never undergo fission to form new colonies.
The workers limit the number of reproductives in the colony by policing new workers that try to lay eggs when an active queen or established gamergates are... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Jumping Ant sighting in Bengaluru on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 308th most-seen of the 477 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, June and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Jumping Ant in Bengaluru on a given day, against under 5% in April–May, July–September and November–February, the lowest months.
Only Bengaluru, in our data
Bengaluru is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Indian Jumping Ant sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Formicidae
The closest relatives of the Indian Jumping Ant that you can see in Bengaluru (family Formicidae, Ants) are Asian Weaver Ant (about 40%), Brown Droptail Ant (about 20%) and Indian Black Ant (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Indian Jumping Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Bengaluru (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
