Anyone good with Ants ?

[Allan.W.]

I wonder if any of the UK butterfliers are good with Ants ! odd request I know. Today we visited the wonderful Wakehurst Place and gardens in West Sussex ,for me i was hoping to see two unusual Orchid species ( Loose Flowered and Greater Tongue ) found the latter (3 well worn )
but not the former ,amongst hundreds of Common Spotted Orcs . Beside the Millenium Seedbank building ,are several small British habitat gardens ie;
Arable ,seashore,mountain ,Downland and so on ,and growing amongst the paving slabs surrounding these superb raised gardens are loads of "escapees "
I was photographing one such plant (Narrow fruited Cornsalad ) and wasn,t aware of this very unusual Ant ,perched on a flower head ,to get a better look click a couple of times ,never seen one with a head shape like this one .....................Any ideas please ??
Regards Allan.W.

[bugboy]

I can't quite work it out by I'm leaning towards an ant mimicking insect of some sort...

[Padfield]

Very interesting. I'm inclined to go with Buggy and suggest this isn't an ant. Look at the length of the antennae, for example ...

A quick Google search produced this Asian ant-mimicking cricket nymph. It obviously isn't the same species as yours, but has features in common:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_mimic ... ricket.jpg

Guy

[Allan.W.]

Thanks for your help Gents ! ,i,ve been flicking through the internet at Bugboys suggestion ie ;an Ant mimic ,and amongst the pictures is The Damsel Ant mimic bug ,and several ,illustrated do look a good match ,although when i put the scientific name in Himacerus Mirmacoides
they seem to come up with something different ? I agree with both ,that this isn,t an Ant ....................Very Odd .
Thanks Again Bugboy and Guy ! Regards Allan.W.

[Padfield]

Well done - I think that's the one. It's an early instar nymph:

https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteropt ... oides.html

Guy

[bugboy]

The nymph of Nabis subcoleoptratus looks like a good match . It's a North American species but presumably it has European relatives.

Edit: yup that looks like the guys. Nabidae too so it is related to the one I was looking at.

[Allan.W.]

Thanks for that Guy ! and thanks Bugboy ......................I knew that i,d probably get the answer here !
Allan.W.