inchman

plural inchmen · alternative inch-man

1. AustraliaTasmaniaAny of several species of large, aggressive ants of the genus Myrmecia, mainly endemic to Australia.

   We sit under the eaves to eat, or on stumps in the grass (there are “inchmen” about, giant lumbering bull ants).

   1990, Beverley Farmer, A Body of Water: A Year's Notebook, page 46

   2 more examples

   They would walk many miles along Ocean Beach and they would eat the fleshy leaves of the plant they called pigface and she called dead men's fingers, would rub the bite of jack-jumpers and the inchmen with the pulpy flesh.

   1994, Richard Flanagan, Death of a River Guide, page 203

   Outside in the yard we had fierce orange bull ants whose bite was like a red-hot needle; and, for a season, two nests of the dreaded inchmen.

   2004, John Harwood, The Ghost Writer, page 9

   Synonyms: bull ant, bulldog ant, inch ant, jack jumper, jumper ant, sergeant ant