If you happen across a worker ant of Pachycondyla tarsata (previously known as Paltothyreus tarsatus), you will have no need to look them up in a book to identify them. You will probably be able to tell what kind of ant they are by their foul odor. The smell they produce is so bad that [...]
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One of the first things you notice about the Formica fusca group ants are their mounds. (These photographs were taken in the Colorado Rockies). Bare mounds of soil and small pebbles stand out amongst the vegetation. As you get closer, you can see that the mound does have some brown bits of vegetation scattered about, such as dried [...] The path to discovery can be encountered in many ways. Take, for example, flipping over a rock in upstate New York last week. I knew immediately the ants were Lasius (once upon a time called Acanthomyops). I also knew the ants were not Lasius claviger because of something that was missing. Can you guess what?
Solenopsis molesta: they are tiny, they are secretive, they are thief ants. Barely over a millimeter long, you really need a microscope to photograph them. This worker thief ant is running on a piece of cake frosting.
Now that’s better. (Photograph by © AntWeb.org / CC-BY-SA-3.0 retrieved from Wikipedia.) The workers are often golden yellow-brown in color and [...] |
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