ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Pugberto]

I found this in the BBC website. Rough guide to some extent but very well put together. Great for decided a new ant to keep as well.


Main Ant Species in Britain

There are around fifty species of ant in Britain but not all are native. Greater varieties of species are found in the south as the climate is warmer for those introduced from abroad.

Black Ants (Lasius niger)

These ants are the most commonly seen as they are likely to live in gardens and are the species most likely to invade human houses in search of food, although they will not usually live there. They are not in fact black but are dark brown in colour and the workers are about 4mm long, though the queen can be up to twice that. They nest underground and bring the mined-out soil to the surface which often forms a small flattish mound. Black ants are omnivorous and will bring back insects, fungi, seeds or honeydew to the nest for food.

Jet Black Ant (Lasius fuliginosus)

These are black with yellow legs and heart-shaped heads and are about 5mm long. They nest in hedges and stumps and are mainly found in the south-east of England.

Yellow Meadow Ants (Lasius flavus)

They are a pale yellow and the workers are about 3mm long. These ants build their nests underground in grassy areas, creating a mound above them, and are the most skilled nest-builders in Britain. This can be seen most spectacularly at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory base in Porton Down. Here there are about three million yellow ant mounds with over 35 billion ants living in them, covering 20 species. It is one of the most important natural sites in Britain. The ants benefit from the short grass which makes sure the ant hills get enough sun to stay warm - some of the mounds are up to 100 years old. The yellow meadow ant also does the majority of its foraging underground, even farming aphids in the nest, and so it is rarely seen on the surface, except in the mating flights or if the nest is disturbed. However, yellow meadow ants are widespread around Britain, especially in the south of England.

Red Wood Ants (Formica rufa)

These ants are orange in colour and have a darker head and abdomen. As the name suggests, they tend to live in woodland, often building their nests over tree stumps. They build very complex nests, most of which are above ground in a mound. The nests have ventilation passages and the entrances can be opened and closed by the workers to regulate the temperature. This system is so efficient that the temperature in the nest hardly differs from that of the surrounding soil. Where heat is needed, such as near the developing ants, some workers will 'sunbathe' to bring heat into those chambers. Wood ants hunt for food, particularly the larvae of other invertebrates such as the sawfly. The ants are capable of squirting formic acid from their abdomen in order to attack prey or to defend their nest. The wood ants Formica aquilonia and Formica lugubris are endangered.

Negro ant (Formica fusca)

This is another type of wood ant, but is black in colour. It is mainly found in southern and central England. The worker can be up to 6mm long. These ants tend to make their nests under rotting logs and there are rarely more than 1000 in a colony. Similar is the Formica Lemani, but this can live further north and at higher altitudes.

Slave-making Ants, or Blood-red Ants (Formica sanguinea)

Slave-making ants are the largest native species in Britain. These are also a type of wood ant, but they do not make mounds for their nests. The slave-making occurs in two ways. A queen will go to a nest of another formica ant and kill the queen, taking the nest over and using the workers to bring up her eggs. The original kind of ant will eventually die out without the queen to reproduce for them. Another way in which the slave-making occurs is that workers from a slave-making ant colony will raid other nests of their larvae and pupae and raise them as auxiliary workers. These ants are only found in small areas of south-east England and north-east Scotland.

Turf Ant (Tetramorium caespitum)

Dark brown in colour, this ant lives in the south and east of England under stones in heath land. The worker is about 3mm long. It is a stinging ant living in colonies of up to 30,000. They apparently bury their food in mounds of soil.

Red Ant (Myrmica ruginodis, sabuleti and rubra)

Red ants live throughout the British Isles and the worker is about 6mm long. They can have a painful sting, but it should be noted that they will only do this if they think they're about to get eaten. They tend to live in fairly small colonies of only 300 individuals. The sabulti farmed the caterpillar of the Large Blue Butterfly, keeping it in the nest and letting it eat ant larvae in return for milking it. The caterpillar gives off a scent which makes the ants believe it is one of their larvae. When the caterpillar matures it leaves the nest. These butterflies became extinct in Britain in 1979: to changed farming practices led to the decline of the ant which was vital to its life-cycle.