Ant Hill Wood

Lasius flavus

This little ant is very rarely seen, as it spends nearly all its life underground; only coming out for the mating flight, or if the nest is disturbed in any way. It is reddish yellow in appearence, rather small workers, with 1 large queen per nest. It could easily be mistaken for the 'stinging' red ant (Myrmica), except that this ant does not have a sting and seems to prefer not to attack people; but to run back into the nest as quickly as possible. L.flavus build nests that look much like a mole hill covered in vegetation. They live on various insects that they find under the soil; but it is possible that they go out above ground at night to hunt. Either way, they avoid daylight, which does not seem to bother ants of other species. You can keep this ant in an ant-farm; but owing to their feeding habits, I would not recommend them to a novice ant collector.

Tapinoma

A fast moving, little black ant which has no sting and does not appear to use formic acid either; its only means of defence being, it can outrun any other ants. Of all the British ant species, Tapinoma has surely got to be the cheetah of ants, as like this big cat, it is very fast and agile at running. They are fairly common in the south of England, but does not appear to have migrated to any other region. It has many queens to its nests and can form large colonies. These ants can be kept in a Formicarium easily; but you need to be fast to catch them, as the queens will dissappear into the nest so fast you'll think you had not seen them in the first place!

The best areas to find Tapinoma are open heathland, quite often in the same habitat as Lasius flavus. The two species seem to co-exist well, as Tapinoma hunt above ground, while L.flavus hunts underground; and so the two rarely, if ever, come into contact with each other.

Just how do ants "talk" to each other ? Unlike us, who use our mouth and tongue to talk and communicate our needs; or by the non-verbal use of " body language", ants cannot speak. They do use body language to a degree, as can be seen sometimes in the aggressive stance of a worker/soldier ant when confronted with an enemy. The head is held high, jaws opened wide in a threatening posture, while the antennae sweep the air or are folded back ready to engage in combat.

When an ant comes across one of her fellow nest mates, she will often touch the other ant with her antennae. This action serves to varify if the other ant has the same colony scent, as colony odour serves as a more useful sign of recognition in ants that sight does. Ants have several different chemicals in their bodies which produce these smells,or pheromones. Depending upon which scent is being given off at the time will trigger what kind of response is required. Pheromones can be used to tell other ants where to find food, or the location of an enemy. If an alarm scent is active, then it will either [1] cause the ants to attack the enemy, or [2] send them rushing back to defend, or evacuate the nest. This response depends largely on the size of the defending nest, and the number of fighters it can muster. Also, some species are more aggressive than others and have a strong soldier caste. It is fair to say that ants, on the whole, are far more warlike than we humans and make us seem quite tame and peaceful by comparison.

Many ants do make noise by stridulating, much like grasshoppers and crickets do. It is only just audible to the human ear if an ant is held very close to it, and even then there is no guarantee you will hear it. All ants seem to rely more on touch and smell, than on sight or sound. Ants don't have ears, but can detect sounds as vibrations picked up by their legs from the ground; much like the 'ping' sound heard on the sonar device of a submarine. So, despite their lack of verbal ability, ants do find ways of "talking" and "listening" to each other to communicate their needs; both in and out of the nest. Ants also have no nose or other apparent olfactory organ, yet they can smell.

 How is this done? Well, the antennae, apart from being touch sensitive organs (hence the name "feelers" ) are also an ants olfactory organ, or nose; and are capable of detecting lots of different odours in chemical form. This is why pheromones play such an important role in recognizing an ants friends or foes.

Ants workers, when finding food, may be able to carry or drag it back to the nest themselves, as ants can carry up to ten times their own weight. So, if an ant finds a dead bluebottle for instance, it is like a man moving a light aeroplane over rough terrain. Some food items, or insect prey however, are too much for a single ant to cope with. This now calls for a different approach! The forager must recruit help from her sisters. She will either, (a) return to the nest, or (b) communicate her find to fellow foragers along the way, as ants tend to leave scent trails to follow. Usually the former is the best course of action, as there are far more worker ants at home as there are out hunting. Large food items can be easily moved from where they are found back to the nest, owing to the number of extra helpers recruited from home. If it is not carried back whole; then it is usually cut up into smaller pieces, which make transportation back to the nest much easier.

Workers of the wood-ant family can make trackways that last for many years and; as they are constantly in use, the scent trail is renewed on a regular basis. It is also a fact that ants use landmarks and ultra-violet light (as bees do), to find their way about. Even when the sun is not shining, as long as cloud cover is not too thick, ants like Formica rufa can be seen roaming the forest floor.

I videoed a fascinating sight a few years back!! Three F.rufa workers were carrying a caterpillar; presumably back to their nest? Two of them pulled in one direction; but the other ant kept pulling in the opposite direction. So the two ants got a bit fed up with this after awhile; and they both bodily lifted the prey and their sister high into the air and carried both caterpillar and ant along for 2 minutes. Eventually the 3rd worker must have got the message, and all three ants pulled in the right direction. THIS HAD TO SEEN TO BE BELIEVED !!!