Black garden ants are representatives of one of the species belonging to the ant family. They are found in Europe, in parts of Asia and in North America. Black garden ants form well-organized colonies in which each individual performs its function: some are responsible for reproduction, others – for order, and others are working. Latin name: Lasius niger Family: Formicidae
The Saharan silver ant (Cataglyphis bombycina) is one of the most heat-resistant species of living creatures. When the midday sun of the Sahara desert forces the enemies of these ants to sit in the shade, the ants make short forays from their nests in search of food – those who are less resistant to heat and died from overheating become their prey.
Rebecca Nesbit from the Society of Biology has been working on the flying ant survey On Friday I received a phone call asking ‘are seagulls in Devon acting weirdly because of flying ants?’. The answer was very likely yes – flying ant day is a special day for gulls, and for many people the excited squawking of feasting gulls is the first sign of flying ant day. The next question, however, was ‘could seagulls be made delirious by formic acid from the ants?’. Gulls have apparently been hit by cars because they are ‘stupefied’ and wandering onto roads. The popular press are answering this second question in increasingly dramatic ways: gulls are made ‘yobbish’ by ants apparently! But the real answer has to be the scientist’s favourite of ‘maybe’. I haven’t found any studies confirming that formic acid is causing the gulls’ behaviour, but we do know that Lasius niger (the black…
Guest blog from Samuel Ellis, a PhD student at the University of York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis There are an estimated 22,000 species of ants, and it is likely that the weight of ants on the planet is greater than the weight of humans. They are very important to ecosystems all over the world including in this country. I am currently conducting a study on the hairy wood ant (Formica lugubris) at the Longshaw Estate in the Peak district. This species is part of a closely related group of six species called the red wood ants which dominate woodland environments across Europe. These ants build distinctive dome shaped nests of pine needles (with underground chambers) which can be up to 1m high (but are more usually around 30cm). They are apex invertebrate predators outcompeting other ant species and hunting for invertebrate prey on the forest floor…
Submit your flying ant sightings! We have had an overwhelming response to our flying ant survey and some very interesting questions about flying ants. So I thought I’d bring them all together, along with a couple of videos of ‘my’ flying ant colonies in Hertfordshire. You can also read about why ants fly on our website or the BBC. If you have any more questions, add a comment below and I will do my best to answer them. Firstly, a question from Mandy from Rochdale: Hi, just read your article about flying ants, I recall an incident about 16 years ago. Went outside to be greeted by a carpet of thousands upon thousands of dead and dying flying ants covering the garden. Is this a normal phenomenon or would it have been something toxic they flew into, It has always puzzled me. This is a natural event, which many of…