Myrmecology is a branch of entomology focusing on the scientific study of ants. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and sought to find solutions to human problems by studying them. Ants continue to be a model of choice for the study of questions on the evolution of social systems because of their complex and varied forms of eusociality. Their diversity and prominence in ecosystems also has made them important components in the study of biodiversity and conservation. Recently, ant colonies are also studied and modeled for their relevance in machine learning, complex interactive networks, stochasticity of encounter and interaction networks, parallel computing, and other computing fields.
Matley Bog is an ancient woodland bog in the New Forest, Hampshire, England.
Formica exsecta is a species of ant found from Western Europe to Asia.
Paraponera clavata, commonly known as the bullet ant, is a species of ant named for its extremely painful sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central and South America.
Formica rufibarbis is a European formicine ant of the Formica fusca group. In the classification by Auguste Forel, it is treated in the subgenus Serviformica. F. rufibarbis is subject to a Species Action Plan (SAP) in England, where it is known from only two locations, although it is not considered to be at risk on continental Europe.
Horace St. John Kelly Donisthorpe was an eccentric British myrmecologist and coleopterist, memorable in part for his enthusiastic championing of the renaming of the genus Lasius after him as Donisthorpea, and for his many claims of discovering new species of beetles and ants.
Formica is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, including species commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, thatching ants, and field ants. Formica is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae. The type species of genus Formica is the European red wood ant Formica rufa. Ants of this genus tend to be between 4 and 8 mm long. Ants belonging to the Formica genus possess a single knob or bump located between their thorax and abdomen. These ants primarily feed on honeydew, a sugary liquid produced by aphids. Formica ants appear to take on a shepherding role with smaller aphids, relocating them to different parts of plants to ensure a continuous food source for the aphids. By doing so, the ants can establish a relatively sustainable honeydew supply for both themselves and their colony.
Formica rufa, also known as the red wood ant, southern wood ant, or horse ant, is a boreal member of the Formica rufa group of ants, and is the type species for that group, being described already by Linnaeus. It is native to Eurasia, with a recorded distribution stretching from the middle of Scandinavia to the northern Iberia and Anatolia, and from Great Britain to Lake Baikal, with unconfirmed reportings of it also to the Russian Far East. There are claims that it can be found in North America, but this is not confirmed in specialised literature, and no recent publication where North American wood ants are listed mentions it as present, while records from North America are all listed as dubious or unconfirmed in a record compilation. The workers' heads and thoraces are colored red and the abdomen brownish-black, usually with dark patches on the head and promensonotum, although some individuals may be more uniform reddish and even have some red on the part of the gaster facing the body. In order to separate them from closely related species, specimens needs to be inspected under magnification, where difference in hairiness are among the telling characteristics, with Formica rufa being hairier than per example Formica polyctena but less hairy than Formica lugubris. Workers are polymorphic, measuring 4.5–9 mm in length. They have large mandibles, and like many other ant species, they are able to spray formic acid from their abdomens as a defence. Formic acid was first extracted in 1671 by the English naturalist John Ray by distilling a large number of crushed ants of this species. Adult wood ants primarily feed on honeydew from aphids. Some groups form large networks of connected nests with multiple queen colonies, while others have single-queen colonies.
Formica cunicularia is a species of ant found all over Europe. They are especially common in western Europe and southern England, but they can be found from southern Scandinavia to northern Africa and from Portugal to the Urals. In England, Donisthorpe records the species as having occurred as far north as Bewdley in Worcestershire. In Formica cunicularia, the worker is an ashy grey black color and is usually 4.0–6.5 mm long. The males are found to have a uniformly dark body and are 8.0–9.0 mm long. The queen is yellowish red to dark black and is 7.5–9.0 mm.
Vaccinium angustifolium, commonly known as the wild lowbush blueberry, is a species of blueberry native to eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States, growing as far south as the Great Smoky Mountains and west to the Great Lakes region. Vaccinium angustifolium is the most common species of the commercially used wild blueberries and is considered the "low sweet" berry.
Formica aquilonia, also called the Scottish wood ant, is a species of wood ant of the genus Formica which are widely distributed in Europe and Asia, occurring from Scandinavia in the north to Bulgaria and Italy in the south, and from the UK eastwards through France and Germany to Russia, while they are also found in the coastal areas of the Sea of Okhotsk in eastern Siberia. They live mainly in coniferous forests but they do also occur in some deciduous woodlands.
Formica lugubris, also known as the hairy wood ant is commonly found in wooded upland areas across northern Eurasia. Colonies construct large thatched mound nests occupied by thousands of workers, and one or more queens. Workers look similar to other species of wood ants, but Formica lugubris workers can be identified by a fringe of hairs that reaches down to their eyes and prominent hairs between the facets of their compound eyes. Workers can reach sizes of up to 9 mm long; queens are larger, reaching 12 mm long.
Formica polyctena is a species of European red wood ant in the genus Formica and large family Formicidae. The species was first described by Arnold Förster in 1850. The latin species name polyctena is from Greek and literally means 'many cattle', referring to the species' habit of farming aphids for honeydew food. It is found in many European countries. It is a eusocial species, that has a distinct caste system of sterile workers and a very small reproductive caste. The ants have a genetic based cue that allow them to identify which other ants are members of their nest and which are foreign individuals. When facing these types of foreign invaders the F. polyctena has a system to activate an alarm. It can release pheromones which can trigger an alarm response in other nearby ants.
Formica pratensis, the black-backed meadow ant, is a species of European red wood ant in the family Formicidae.
Blueberry is a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plant with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Vaccinium also includes cranberries, bilberries, huckleberries and Madeira blueberries. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s.
Prionomyrmex is an extinct genus of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae of the family Formicidae. It was first described by Gustav Mayr in 1868, after he collected a holotype worker of P. longiceps in Baltic amber. Three species are currently described, characterised by their long mandibles, slender bodies and large size. These ants are known from the Eocene and Late Oligocene, with fossil specimens only found around Europe. It is suggested that these ants preferred to live in jungles, with one species assumed to be an arboreal nesting species. These ants had a powerful stinger that was used to subdue prey. In 2000, it was suggested by Cesare Baroni Urbani that the living species Nothomyrmecia macrops and a species he described both belonged to Prionomyrmex, but this proposal has not been widely accepted by the entomological community. Instead, scientists still classify the two genera distinctive from each other, making Nothomyrmecia a valid genus.
Microdon mutabilis, is a species of hoverfly. It is found in many parts of Britain and Europe. The distinctive almost slug-like larvae live in ants' nests. They are hemispherical in shape, heavily armoured and believed to prey on the eggs and larvae of a number of ant species, including Formica lemani, Formica fusca, Lasius niger and Myrmica ruginodis. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Microdon analis, is a species of hoverfly. It is found in the Palearctic. The distinctive almost slug-like larvae live in ants nests. The larvae are hemispherical in shape and heavily armoured. They are believed to prey on the eggs and larvae of a number of different ant species, notably Lasius niger and the Formica rufa group. These ants are usually found on heathland. However Schmid (2004) claims that Microdon analis and M. major which are cryptic species have been confused under the name analis. M.major is apparently associated with ants of the genus Formica, the other species, M.analis, with Lasius species.
Luzula multiflora, the common woodrush or heath wood-rush, is a species of flowering plant in the rush family.
