Semut Selangor

It is with much amusement/relief that I read this piece in The Star:
Friday April 17, 2009
People seek out MC ant to get day off work
By LESTER KONG

PETALING JAYA: The same type of ant which sent Butterworth boy Loh Kean Beng to the intensive care unit is also known as “MC ant” among some locals in Penang.

This is because there are people who voluntarily get a bite from the semut Selangor to induce dizziness and fever so that they can get a medical certificate (MC) and a day off work, claims the Seberang Prai municipal council’s special squad chief M. Raju.

“There is a coffee stall here under a tree where factory workers go to have coffee and also to have the ant bite them. After they get dizzy and feverish, they visit a clinic to get medical leave so they don’t have to go to work,” said Raju, who is tasked with tackling the ant problem.

He called the practice foolhardy and said the effects suffered by victims could vary greatly depending on the individual’s resistance to the ant’s poison.

“Some won’t feel anything. But there are many who can easily fall sick from the ant’s bite,” said Raju.

However, he had not heard of any deaths from the ant bite.

“This ant has been around for a long time. I have spoken to some older Indian estate workers and they know it as katta erumbu in Tamil,” he said in a phone interview.

He said while trying to find out more about the ant, the squad sent specimens and pictures to Universiti Sains Malaysia’s entomologist Prof Dr Lee Chow Wang, US entomologists Prof Dr Philip S. Ward of the University of California and Prof Dr Edward O. Wilson of Harvard Uni-versity.
“After they confirmed and identified the species, it was much easier for us to send out information to the public so that they would be careful not to get bitten by this ant,” Raju said.

He said the semut Selangor, which usually built nests on dead tree branches or stumps, were not aggressive and would not attack humans unless provoked.

“Some people walking under trees might have one fall on them. If they try to flick the ant off, the ant might bite them but it won’t have time to sting them with the poison. If so, they are lucky lah,” he said.

posted by Jeyapalan.T.S.Mahesan {jeyapalantsmahesan.blogspot.com}