From Wikimalia
| The Bug Collection
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| Chandler Ant
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| Habitat: | Diaxwood trees.
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| Description: | Coppery brown to rust in color, the Chandler Ant adult grows up to half a thum in length. Covered in miniscule bristles that are slathered with a milky waxy coating, the ant's carapace is dull and slick. Energetic antennae just above its bulging eyes dart furtively about, tasting the environment. Its tiny mandibles seem unimposing but as sharp as a darning needle. Six angular legs support its narrow body and append in tiny hooks for grasping bark and smooth leaves.
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| Notes: | The Chandler is as uncommon as diaxwood trees, found in perhaps a tenth of the coniferous specimens.
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Symbiotic with the Diax Aphid, these herbivorous insects have 'domesticated' the aphids, which secrete an unpleasant waxy resin. Using the wax to feed the ants' larvae, and to coat their own thorax as a natural repellant to predators, the chandler ant colonies are very territorial, aggressively defending their tree and their aphids from predation.
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