Crematogaster peringueyi
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Crematogaster peringueyi is a southern African arboreal species of ant. They are commonly known as the black cocktail ant or swartwipgatmier (Afrikaans) for their colour and habit of arching their abdomens when alarmed. They make their nests in old Protea flowers, dead, hollow branches, and under tree bark, also making nests constructed of well-chewed vegetable matter with the consistency of papier-mâché. The outer walls of these nests are blackened by the salivary secretions, and are thin, with the interior divided into irregular, connected cells, like a coarse sponge. These more or less spherical nests, ranging in diameter from 10–30 cm, are built in a fork or among the branches, some of the branches passing through the nest. Workers are glossy black and 3–5 mm long, and the larger queen is about eight mm long, both having heart-shaped abdomens.
Pheromone alarms are common among the social Hymenoptera. Some of these have been chemically identified, but the number is still small compared with the large number of species making use of them. The ketone octan-3-one is seen as the major component of the pheromone complex secreted from the heads of C. peringueyi... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Cocktail Ant sighting in Garden Route National Park on a given day, based on 26 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 90th most-seen of the 298 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black Cocktail Ant in Garden Route National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, August and December, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Cocktail Ant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Black Cocktail Ant sightings, Garden Route National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Table Mountain National Park (South Africa, about 20%).
Same family: Formicidae
The closest relatives of the Black Cocktail Ant that you can see in Garden Route National Park (family Formicidae, Ants) are Hairy Sugar Ant (about 10%), Ringbum Millipede Muncher Ant (about 10%) and Small Pugnacious Ant (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Cocktail Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Garden Route National Park (26 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
