When do jack jumper ants jump?

Myrmecia croslandi is a day active ant that exhibits jumping behaviour, but the circumstances that leading to jumps are not well understood. We monitored four M. Croslandi nests and tracked their outbound and inbound journeys while recording a range of abiotic factors. Ants were found to jump significantly more on inbound journeys, and were usually up to 3 cm in distance (jumps over 6 cm were observed). The number of jumps observed increased as substrate temperatures increased, however, this appeared to be mediated by prevailing wind speeds as jumping was more likely at lower temperatures when prevailing wind speeds were faster.