Talk:Pogonomyrmex maricopa

Insects: Ants Low‑importance

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Grading

While the venom angle is interesting and clearly a defining feature of this species, some natural history information could be included. Heds (talk) 03:51, 25 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Confusing

What is the toxicity rating of this ant? It is not clear what is meant by the following -- "The Maricopa Harvester Ant is best known for the toxicity of its venom. The lethal dosage required to kill at least one half of a population (LD50) of rodents is at an exact value of 0.12 mg/kg, as compared to that of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) sting, which is 2.8 mg/kg. In other words, this means that one sting from the Maricopa Harvester Ant is equivalent to 12 honey bee stings—sufficient to kill a 4.5 pound rat." Something's missing. Moriori (talk) 04:34, 27 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There was an error, possibly caused by misinterpretation of the About.com source. 12 stings from the ant (not from the bee) would kill a 2 kg rat (from which I calculate that each sting injects about 20 μg of venom). The equivalence is actually 231⁄3 bee stings (rather than 12) to match a single sting from P. maricopa. I've updated the article to reflect this. --Waldir ^talk 12:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Its venom is also not all that toxic when compared to other land animals. I added to the text of the article to reflect this. Michael Goldshteyn —Preceding undated comment added 18:58, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]