raffle ant
/ˈrafl ˌant/Caribbean. Now historical
noun
A kind of predatory ant which is said to have been introduced into Jamaica to control pests in sugar cane plantations, and later to have become a pest itself.
- There is confusion concerning the ant's identity, and some doubt as to whether it was genuinely an introduced species. Linnaeus's name Formica omnivora was used differently by various authors, and cannot now be assigned to an identifiable species. Later writers on the ‘raffle ant’ generally consider it to have been a species of Prenolepis or Paratrechina. Reports of its preying on rats may perhaps reflect popular confusion with a fire ant (genus Solenopsis)..
Origin
Late 18th century; earliest use found in Bryan Edwards (1743–1800), planter and politician. Apparently from the name of Thomas Raffle or Raffles, a planter who supposedly introduced this ant to Jamaica from Cuba in 1762 + ant.