Workers are roughly 5–9 mm long; repletes become many times broader.
Fine-art photographic collection
Myrmecocystus semirufus
A desert ant that turns living workers into hanging storage vessels — and shelters an obligate silverfish guest.
About this species
Honeypot Ant
Myrmecocystus semirufusEmery, 1893
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Myrmecocystus semirufus is a North American honeypot ant of arid country. Foragers collect liquid food that is transferred to specialised nestmates whose abdomens expand into repletes.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Formicidae · Formicinae · Myrmecocystus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Southwestern United States and northern MexicoBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Southwestern United States and northern Mexico
Hot desert and semi-desert soils with sparse vegetation.
Primarily diurnal, scavenging and hunting in high surface temperatures.
Nectar, honeydew, dead arthropods and live prey.
Large underground colony with normal workers, foragers and specialised repletes.
What makes this species remarkable?
Selected workers become living larders: their gasters swell with liquid until they cannot walk, and they hang from chamber ceilings dispensing food mouth-to-mouth when the colony needs it.
The species is an active desert predator as well as a nectar collector, running over exposed ground at temperatures that exclude many competing ants.
Its nests host Mirolepisma deserticola, a silverfish so specialised for life with honeypot ants that it is considered an obligate myrmecophile.