Formica ant
Tiogshi Laj was outside the other day and spotted a swarm of slaver ants, and decided to stop to take some pictures. The “distant” blurry background is mottled red and black because it’s solid ants. I’m not sure on the exact species of ant, but this looks like one of the Formica species to me. These ants go on raids to capture larvae and pupae from other ants nests; it might be one such raid that Tiogshi has caught on film here.
There may well be other reasons for them to be out in force like this, but I only know of two: The first would be mating flights of the new queens. I strongly doubt that this is the case, however, since it is early Spring in British Columbia where this photo was taken, and queens are the “crop” of an ant colony: after a long Summer’s growing season, they come forth with the Fall Harvest. The second reason would be colony alarm. If something were digging up the anthill the defenders would be out in force. I suspect that this is also not the case, however, as Tiogshi didn’t notice anything in particular attacking the nest. It could be something small, like another ant colony, but in all the photos Tiogshi sent me there only appear one species and they’re all getting along with each other.
There’s a lot of interesting things about Formica ants. Their name derives from the formic acid that they use as a defense. This ant doesn’t sting much but instead uses a puff of acid to deter enemies. There’s something else I love about these ants. See if you can spot it in this second photo from Tiogshi:
Do you see her?
Formica ants have some of the best eyesight among ants, and they use it to defensive effect… along with gigantic pinching jaws.
See the wide open jaws? This ant really is looking at the camera… and daring it to come any closer!
Thank you Tiogshi! Awesome photos!
Tiogshi Laj said,
April 8, 2008 @ 12:24 am
Actually, I said in the e-mail that I did see something disturbing the nest. There was a crow who appeared to be “scrubbing” herself clean in the dirt (crows do that), but as I got closer it became apparent she wasn’t cleaning; she was having breakfast!
These ants were still out in full force doing repair duties when I walked past the nest again later in the day.
tceisele said,
April 8, 2008 @ 6:04 am
Maybe the crow was both having breakfast, and getting cleaned. I’ve read about how some birds will intentionally annoy large ant nests so that the ants will spray them with formic acid. One theory is that the formic acid helps kill mites and other parasites on the bird.
Ah, here we go. It’s called anting.
Entr0physt said,
April 14, 2008 @ 11:29 am
Wow! Very cool behavior. Crows are known to be intelligent, but it’s still nice to see some of the animal old chauvanism drop away. Primates are far from the only tool users… you don’t have to have dexterous fingers to figure out clever ways to use the world around you.
Insect Picture of the Day » Mating Flight: Ants said,
April 22, 2008 @ 7:03 am
[…] technically, the flight portion hasn’t actually started. Tiogshi Laj went back to the ant colony he photographed last week and took another look. This time he found about a dozen of these larger, winged ants hanging […]