The southern wood ant, aka horse ant or red wood ant, hails from Europe, but has a distribution all the way to eastern Asia. Unconfirmed reports state their presence in North America as well. They face the threats of habitat loss and destruction from residential and commercial developments, and clear-felling, which affects aphid production and harvesting, as well as unmanaged plantations which create too much shade, preventing sunlight from reaching nests; climate change, which causes warmer winters that interfere with their hibernation cycles, and increased rainfall can flood nests; air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution which all affect aphid reproduction; ranching, which brings about overgrazing livestock that can trample nests; pesticide overuse, that causes gradual and immediate death of colonies; and predators, both natural and introduced, that prey on these ants. The IUCN lists these insects as Near Threatened. Their population trend is listed as undetermined.
First the Stats…
Scientific name: Formica rufa
Weight: Up to 0.00018 ounce
Length: Up to .47 inch
Lifespan: Up to 3 years for workers, up to 20+ years for queens
Now on to the Facts!
1.) While aphid honeydew is their primary source of food, they will also prey on various insects and arachnids. They’re also intense scavengers.
2.) They are frequently used in forestry management and often are introduced into an area as a form of pest control.
3.) Worker ants often perform parental care or cocoon nursing.
4.) The foraging behavior of wood ants varies based on their environment. Some have been documented attending to and harvesting aphids as well as preying on and competing with other predators for food resources.
5.) These ants have shown aggressive behavior towards their own species in various situations. Intraspecific competition usually occurs early in spring between workers of competing nests. This aggression might be linked to the protection of maintaining territory and trails.
But wait, there’s more on the southern wood ant!
6.) Like all ants, they recognize their nestmates via chemical signals. Failure to recognize each other typically causes the integrity of the colony to quickly decay.
7.) These ants are capable of spraying formic acid from their abdomens as a defense.
Did you know…?
Formic acid was originally extracted by the English naturalist John Ray, in 1671, by distilling a large number of crushed southern wood ants.
8.) Formic acid not only acts as a natural antibiotic, but it can also be a powerful defense that is corrosive and causes burns; respiratory issues; and irritation to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
9.) These critters collect resins from coniferous trees and incorporate them into their nests for various uses. Resin provides them with structural soundness and predator defense to their nests; as well as antimicrobial, antifungal, and pathogen defense in conjunction with formic acid from their venom gland.
10.) Wood ants perform organized and planned attacks on other ant colonies or insects. These orchestrated attacks are motivated by territory expansion, resource acquisition, and brood capture.
But wait, there’s still more on the southern wood ant!
11.) Colonies usually house multiple reproducing queens.
12.) They typically have multiple nests, enabling them to relocate in the event of dramatic environmental changes. This splitting of nests lends to the formation of additional daughter nests.
Did you know…?
While these ants don’t have stingers, like some other species of ants, they do have powerful jaws and will bite and spray formic acid as both an attack and a defense.
13.) Nest turnover rates are quite high with this species. Over a 3-year period, researchers counted 248 nests within a 6.33 mile area under study.
14.) In 2008, the chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) was reported for the first time in this and another ant species. CBPV affects bees, ants, and mites. CBPV causes bloated abdomens and severe paralysis, leading to death.
15.) Queens can produce 1,000s of eggs in their long lifetime.
Now a Short Southern Wood Ant Video!
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Some source material acquired from: Wikipedia & IUCN
Photo credit: Richard Bartz
