Green ant's nest of leaves attached to a small branch, photographed by Mountford on Groote Eylandt during the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land.

Explorers past have commented on these insects - Matthew Flinders recorded his experiences of green ants from the Groote Eylandt/Cape Arnhem leg of his Investigator Voyage (1802-1803):

Most of the bushes contained nests made by a small green ant; and if the bush were disturbed, these resentful little animals came out in squadrons, and never ceased to pursue till the disturber was out of sight. In forcing our way amongst the underwood, we sometimes got our hair and clothes filled with them; and as their bite is very sharp, and their vengeance never satisfied, there was no other resource than stripping as expeditiously as possible. (A voyage to Terra Australis, V.2, pp 226 - 227).

Aboriginal people steep crushed green ants in water to make a sweet, lemony flavoured drink, and the ants have also been used for medicinal purposes. Nests containing the ants and pupae are crushed into a paste and inhaled to relieve colds, and in northeast Arnhem Land, the paste is put on the forehead to treat headaches.

Mountford, Charles P.(Charles Pearcy), 1890-1976

American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, (1948)

Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814, A voyage to Terra Australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator..., Adelaide : Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966

Isaacs, Jennifer, Bush food : Aboriginal food and herbal medicine, McMahons Point, N.S.W. : Weldons, c1987

Lamshed, Max, 'Monty' : the biography of C.P. Mountford, [Adelaide] : Rigby, 1972