Yesterday while at the Kranji Nature Trail, many of us noticed the odd occurrence of a great number of the black spiny ants (Polyrachis sp.) apparently ’suspended in motion’, especially towards the end of the trail where the mangroves met with the secondary forest. They were all dead, their mandibles clasping onto the edge of a leaf, or twig, and isolated from the colonies. We suspected it’s the doing of fungal parasitism. I collected a few of them, with the thought of doing some research on this. Today I saw fungal growth on the ants - so the cause of death is certain.
More on this to come as soon as I find out more.
