ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Alby]

I went for holaday to the Alps in Italy, everywhere I've seen this kind of ants..They are big and make nest with wood..so I was thinking about camp. Ligniperda even because they are black-red-black...but I found them similar to raptiformica sanguinea...so I'm not sure about their species...what do you think about???

[highered]

They look like a formica species (wood ants) to me.

[Alby]

I see some photos and I think that they are raptiformica..
these ants were everywhere they have colonized all the country where I was...rarely I saw some Formica Rufa...

[JimmyVe]

I would go for (rapti)Formica sanguinea.

[Skippy]

hard to say which one Formica spec. , because in nest are a lot of worker´s colour variations and you can not say it , all depends on taxonomical tags and on specifications of their nest type (how is that built)

[miszt]

As they seem to have built their nest with Pine Needles, I would suggest Formica rufa

[gabranth]

sanguinea with rufa slaves?

[Skippy]

sanguinea with rufa slaves is not possible in nature... but It could be fine battle of 2 dominant spec. colonies

mizst , it do not depends if is nest made from pine needles or only ground with small stones on it ... lot of Formica spec. was selected by differents of style of build this ant-hills and what type of forest they prefer - so not much by taxonomy = not all what build ant-hills is formica rufa

[Alby]

I'm not at home now but I have a picture of the nest..

rufa and this specie were not togheter, where I've seen rufa there wasn't Formica's species..and I see (rapti)formica sanguinea in the same place of other black ants that were similar to a big lasius...

[JimmyVe]

Probably some slave 'colony' like Formica fusca.

[Alby]

this is their nest!it's very big and made of little piece of wood!

[Alby]

sorry!

[Skippy]

nice nest , but I believe you can call this specie Formica sp.
you can go look on this place at spring , when are first temperature about 15°C and look that massive couple of ants on it , and in small groups of ants aroudn look on queens (there are many of them)