As of today the bug status at my girl’s hilltop school has shifted from shockingly loud cicadas to unreasonably large flying ants.
One of millions of giant ants. This one has lost it's wings
The ground at the school is crawling with these, the rest of whom have wings. I did not see even one in the air. The mystery of these ridiculously large ants makes me suspicious that they are a phase of some other ant relative, or that they are a flight of either new queens, or new “studs”. If anyone knows let me know.
And no....I did not feel like bringing a healthier specimen to my coffee table
I remember seeing a nature show that involved the occasional “bloom” of winged males, who would find their way to a colony. The ladies come out, mob the guy, chew his wings of, and drag him underground to be the queen’s sex slave. A sort of ant porn situation I guess. It’s a whole different type of underground club scene.
Decent mandibles. Not the biggest, but decent
So whoever can advise me about what these are, where they come from, and why I should not keep any on my coffee while I type this, please post. Otherwise I will be on all kinds of websites trying to find this beast so I can call for an evacuation of the school.
May 14, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I think they are "sompopos de mayo" because you only see them during may.
May 14, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Those giant ants are the famous "Zompopo de Mayo" or the giant ants of May. Zompopo (some – pop – o, would be the English pronunciation) is the Spanish word that is used to refer to giant ants, which usually tend to have a huge scissor as mouths. The particular thing about these zompopo de mayo is that they always come out with the first rains of May, so in other words they let Salvadoreans know winter is here. I am not sure about this, but it is said the small headed zompopo de mayo are the females and the big headed ones are the males. It is very common among kids to make the males battle each other as it is very curious to see how they go at it by just putting two male zompopo de mayo together. Hope this info helps… Cheers
May 14, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Hello, this kind of Ant, is very friendy jeje, in El Salvador appears in May, it named "Zompopo de Mayo"… I remember when i was a kid and i saw a lot of then after the first rains… my friends and I play with them all the time, but in June disappear… In Guatemala, some people in the rural areas eat this kind of Ants… they say theses ants are delicious… yummi jejeje you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leafcutter_ant or in spanish here: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atta and here too: http://childreninternational.blogspot.com/2007/07…
May 14, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Those ants are Zompopos de Mayo as the name says, the Zompopos only appear in May after the first rains. That means the rainy season already started. Thanks for your lines, I really like your blog.
May 15, 2012 at 1:44 am
Those are ‘Zompopos de Mayo’ (May’s large ants)! Which appear after the first rains.
When I was in primary school, me and my classmates used to play with them by making them fight. And so did everyone else back then. I’m not sure if kids today still do that though, with so many electronics to be distracted with, large ants must be boring.
Chuperto, a comedian radio host, was talking about them on the radio yesterday, the casual conversation topic was ‘May’s ants finally have appeared’.
May 15, 2012 at 10:29 am
I'm thinking, Leafcutter ants. Males and females have wings for the mating filight. The queens are big.
http://www.blueboard.com/leafcutters/what.htm
The weight of dealate Atta queens varies from species to species, but all Atta queens are huge (Acromyrmex queens are much smaller), exceeded in size only by the grotesque queens of doryline driver ants.
May 15, 2012 at 10:57 am
These are called "sompopos de mayo", they only come out on May, that's their tradition
May 15, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Nanelle, these are known as "zompopo de Mayo" Zompopo is a big ant that usually comes out in May and early in the morning. They are usually harmless, I've never heard of a Zompopo de Mayo bite.
You might want to read this: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/705445
take care,
May 20, 2012 at 10:39 am
Hi I am a Salvadorean living in the US, the bugs you pictured are a type of ant called Zompopo and specifically "zompopos de Mayo" because they come out in May every year, everyone expects them and they are harmless(or at least that is whay I remember). I was born in El Salvador and lived there up until I was 19 but I never questions or wondered where the zompopos came from or why they were there… Zompopos were just a normal occurrence every year. Honestly I always thought of them as a separate species of bug, it was not until I read your post that I realize they do look like a big ant, I looked it up in the Spanish wikipedia and in fact they are a species of Ant. If you read Spanish follow this link http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atta unfortunately the information found in the English side of wikipedia is very limited and not as informative as the Spanish version. I hope you find this information helpful and by the way I love your site, I was guided here because I was looking for an image of the Semilla de Paterna
and loved your blog about them I miss eating paterna so much! Have a nice day!
May 21, 2012 at 11:33 am
Hi, I don't know where the ants come from or anything else about those but your post made me remember my childhood in El Salvador. We called those ants "zompopos de Mayo" and usually will show up during May letting us know a "temporal" was coming.
May 21, 2012 at 1:54 pm
They are called zompopos de mayo, they come out every May, before there use to be a lot now only a few come out!
May 22, 2012 at 2:52 am
The only thing I know is that they do not appear any more as use to be, You should be happy of have the opportunity of seen the Sompopos de Mayo. a event that happen every year in may, What is it, I don't have Idia but I can guaranty to you that they are harmless and a cute variation of nature in El Salvador and something I would like to see again. You are so Lucky…greetings from Sunnyvale CA
May 22, 2012 at 6:22 pm
these ants are mutants; genetically engineered to eat away reinforced steel-concrete mass foundations. they accidentally escaped from a laboratory in la campanera and have made their way to san salvador. they are the test subjects of a new research experiment on biological warfare and potential terrorism attacks. they should be harmless and represent no inmediate danger to humans. : D