Ant Hill Wood

These are the aptly named "Blood Red" ants, for this species is a so called "Slave Raider".
In appearance they look very much like their close relative, Formica rufa; but there the similarity ends!
This species is often referred to as Raptiformica, for like the Velociraptor of the dinosaurs, these ants are very skilled at hunting and killing; particularly other ants, such as Formica fusca whose nests they often raid for plundering brood.

When an attack is made upon a nest of F. fusca, they do not resist strongly in defence; but instead they retreat quickly, taking as much brood as they can with them. This makes sense, as the F. sanguinea are much more powerful and generally decapitate the fusca defenders with one swift bite.
Plenty of fusca larvae and pupae are captured and taken back to the raiders nest. At least half of the captured brood will be eaten and fed to the colony; but around 30% of the fusca brood will survive and reach maturity. These ants then become the "slaves" of the sanguinea nest, though in reality they work no harder as captives than they would in their own mother nest.

Formica sanguinea are quite rare in Britain, being found mainly in the south below the M4 motorway.
There a few isolated pockets where nests may be found in Wales and again in Scotland; but these are few and far between.
They prefer to nest on open heathland with sandy soil, building a small mound of dirt covered lightly with the odd bits of vegetation and small twigs from trees.

A newly fertilized queen of this species will actively seek out a nest of F. fusca or related species. She then collects pupae from the host nest and defends them against all comers. Once these hatch, the resulting workers accept the parasite queen as their own. The true queens are eventually killed off, either by the sanguine queen, or the fusca workers she has raised.
Gradually the colony becomes a mixture of both fusca and sanguinea, until finally there are enough raiders to go out and capture yet more "slaves"!

Although it is essential for a queen of F. sanguinea to enter the nest of fusca to begin a colony; it is not totally necessary for it to continue, as the "slave makers" can exist just as well without their "slaves" if they have to. Over a period of time, Formica sanguinea will take in new queens, as like others of this genus they are polygynous; though their colonies do not appear to have large queen numbers like one may find in say, a nest of wood ants.

Anyone who has ever seen this ant could easily mistake it for F. fusca, except for one main difference. Formica lemani is much hairier than its cousin.
However, fusca is only found mainly in the south of England, going up as far as Wales, Cheshire and Derbyshire in the north; whereas F. lemani on the other hand is to be found from Cornwall in the south, up through Wales and going as far north as the highlands of Scotland.
Indeed, this species has even colonized most parts of Ireland, whereas F. fusca has only managed to gain a small foothold in the extreme south of Eire.
This species belongs to the genera, Formicinae. A family of ants whose eyes have large ocelli and very distinct long legs. Lemani is a medium sized, black ant of a dull coal/charcoal grey appearance closely related to Formica fusca. Like many formicine ants, it sprays formic acid from the end of the gaster.
Unlike some Formica, lemani is a fairly peaceful ant, happy to live under stones in open heathland and farm pastures.
The queens are approximately 13mm, while workers vary from 5 to 7mm in length.

Being a polygynous species, they have several queens per nest, the average being between 7 and 10.
Like many ants of this genus, they can and do, spray formic acid; though not as impressively as their wood ant cousins.

Nest sites are commonly located under stones and flat rocks, such as may be found in an old quarry. The nest is usually dug into moist soil, though occasionally they may be found nesting in dry stone walls or stone bridges.
They prefer the nest to be sited in a cooler facing aspect than fusca, and tend to therefore only forage when the sun is at its highest.

Like other Formica ants, the larvae spins a cocoon. Alate male pupae are the same size as that of the workers, and are difficult to distinguish; but the alate female (Queen) pupae cocoon are much bigger, being nearly 3 times larger than both male and worker pupae.
Occasionally the nests of lemani may be found to be co-existing with Myrmica ruginodis or M. rubra. When such duo nests occur, there is no major evidence of open hostility from either species, as even when the nest is opened the workers from each family seem to ignore one another.
When ants of opposing factions from different neighbouring nests meet up however, it more often than not leads to warfare on a grand scale.

These are a small yellow looking ant, which are generally a monogynic species (having only 1 queen per nest), although there are reports of them possibly becoming polygynous as they will often tolerate more than 1 queen in captivity.
It is widespread over the entire British Isles, including the Scilly Isles, some of the islands off Scotland and in many parts of Ireland.
In fact, this species is one of the most common UK species; though it is also one of the least seen as it spends most of its time underground, only foraging on the surface during the hours of darkness.

The best time to see L. flavus is perhaps during their mating flights in late July or early August, when hundreds of winged alate males and females burst forth accompanied by the tiny yellow workers.

The nest consists of a soil mound which eventually becomes covered with small plant life. It is quite possibly the most accomplished soil nest builder of any of the British ants.
Population estimates can reach 24,000; but an average of between 10,000 and 13,000 is more like the norm!

Spending most of their lives below ground, they tend to forage for root aphids and other underground dwelling invertebrates. Oddly the caterpillar of the Chalk Hill Blue butterfly (Lysandra coridon) is taken into the nests of L. flavus where it is tended lovingly and covered with soil for its protection.

Nest mounds are built with a southerly or westerly aspect to catch the warmth of the sun, as this creates a suitable microclimate for the inhabitants. Even the shade thrown by short grasses may deter the queens of this species starting a colony; and the taller grasses will even extinguish a fully mature nest causing total extinction of the colony.

The larvae of L. flavus spin a cocoon in which to pupate. The adult workers do not sting or even spray formic acid, but can exude acid from the tip of their gaster to overcome prey or defend themselves.
From recent observations I have found that newly mated queens of this species co-operate far more in colony founding than most other Lasius species.
Whereas Lasius niger queens either kill each other once they have workers, or the workers adopt the fittest and strongest queen, L. flavus prefer to just split up the colony after a period of being polygynous and then become monogynous.

Probably the most encountered ant species here in mainland Britain is Lasius niger. It is widely distributed throughout the British Isles, but appears to be absent in some areas of Ireland and Scotland.
Found most commonly in bushy scrubland and gardens, or even wetland areas are favoured habitats; it also appears in grassland where it can nest under stones or even inhabit the upper parts of Lasius flavus mounds.

There is evidence that L. niger prefers to excavate nests in moist soil ( more so than any other British ant species ), and is often found under paving stones where the soil stays relatively damp.
It is a small ant, dull black in colour, with short erect hairs on the scape of its antennae.
Niger will often invade human dwellings in her search for food, and is attracted to the kitchen for obvious reasons. My own home has had many visitations from curious Lasius niger workers foraging around our kitchen, even though Jenant and I live in a first floor apartment; so the people under us must have had Niger visits also !

Colony numbers can be as many as 13,000 individuals, with the average nest population being between 5,000 to 7,000 ants. Not bad for a species that is monogynic, having just 1 queen per colony.
One queen per colony is probably a less common number than more than one. Single queens often co-operate with each other in the initial stage of colony founding, and then break up and go their seperate ways afterwards.
Queens will either simply disperse, going off with some of the brood to form their own colony elsewhere; or they may fight, and the winner gets to keep it all. Rarely will they fight to the death, unless there is nowhere for the defeated queens to escape to, such as in a captive colony in an Ant Farm etc.
This happens only in monogynous ants such as Lasius, whereas in a polygynic species like Myrmica, the queens will stay together throughout the entire lifetime of the nest.

Despite their relatively small size, L. niger workers are strong and aggressive ants which spray formic acid. They are bold in battle, either with prey or an enemy, and can certainly alert each other quickly; but seem to have a somewhat limited ability to co-ordinate their actions.
They are however, extremely good at following a scent trail laid down by foraging scouts; especially when a food source such as a pot of jam or honey is at the end of it !

All in all, Lasius niger is perhaps the most successful ant species in the U.K. to date; being very proliferous and adaptable to environmental changes, usually caused by human interference !!

This small red ant is found well dispersed throughout the British Isles. A typical nest usually contains between 1,200 and 2,500 individuals.
Queen numbers vary; but around 10 to 20 is normal for this species.

Without a doubt, Myrmica species have the most widespread distribution in the U.K. in terms of genus.
For the most part, they are orangey- red, to reddish brown in colour. Colonies are usually small, rarely exceeding 3000 workers. They have a very effective and painful sting, much like that of a stinging nettle; but much worse, especially if you have a low pain tolerance !

Myrmica ruginodis is the only species to have reached the Isle of Shetland to the north of Scotland; and so far, it is the only ant found in all 152 vice- counties in Britain.

Their diet consists of aphids, fly larvae and adult flies, spiders etc. They will also eat the flesh of dead birds and mammals which they may come across when foraging.
Their preference for nest building is to dig out tunnels and galleries under flat stones, often in meadows and farm pastureland. If no stones are available, they will cut out a nest in the soft wood of rotting tree stumps.
In the winter months, ruginodis retreat underground and hibernate.
The average colony population of a M. ruginodis nest is between 1,200 and 1,500 individuals.
Whereas ruginodis macrogyna is found all over the U.K., microgyna is limited to the north and west. Microgyna also reproduces colonies via the budding system, whereas Macrogyna only uses mating flights to found new colonies.

The species is divided into 2 distinct sub-species.

1) M. ruginodis macrogyna.
As the name implies, this has large queens of which there are normally between 7 and 12 found per nest. Macro=large, Gyna= female (Queen).

2) M. ruginodis microgyna.
This has very small queens which are similar in size to its workers, and are therefore very hard to distinguish as such. There may be up to 100 queens found in each nest, and it is believed that evolution is forming 2 very distinct seperate species from each sub-species.
Micro=small or tiny.

Both forms look very much like Myrmica rubra, except that on ruginodis the epinotal spines are twice as long as on rubra.
Like all myrmicines they have larvae which pupate within a pupal skin, and do not spin a cocoon like Lasius or Formica ants do.

Myrmica also have a sting, which is a specialy adapted extension of the poison gland sac. They produce a toxin which is formed of formic acid with other substances, such as peptides and amino acids, as found in bee and wasp stings. Histamine is a main component of the venom, and it is believed that these chemicals act like a snakes venom to begin the actual digestion of prey food items after they have been stung.

Belonging to the sub-family Dolichoderinae, this is the only representative species in Britain.
It is a small black ant with many queens per colony. Though widely distributed across most of Europe, it is confined to central, southern England only in the UK.

Nesting in open heathland, the nest consists of a very small mound no more than 10cm across, and usually covered with light vegetation, which makes up some of the internal structure of said nests.
Tapinoma tends to be semi nomadic in habit, and often moves from one nest site to another during the warmer summer months.
The workers of this species are easily recognizable from other British black ants, as they run around very fast, in a very erratic manner, with their gaster raised well above the ground.

Foragers lay extremely strong scent trails which can last for several days, as long as strong winds or heavy rain storms do not remove them.
For defence, these ants rely more on their speed to flee from a fight or predator, as they do not appear to use formic acid, neither do they possess a sting!

Their swiftness at running and being able to move much faster and nimbler than other ants gives them an edge, as their hunters are undoubtedly the cheetah of the ant world when it comes to agility.
Perhaps the best place to find Tapinoma is on the wide stretches of open heath that cover many square miles of the New Forest, in Hampshire, England.
Just look for a fast moving black speck that tends to disappear before you have chance to focus on it, and you've almost certainly found a foraging worker of the ant species Tapinoma erraticum.