Red-backed slave ant
| Red-backed slave ant | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Red-backed slave ant worker ( Formica cunicularia ) |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Formica cunicularia | ||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The red-backed slave ant ( Formica cunicularia ) from the subfamily of the scale ants (Formicinae) belongs to the genus of wood ants ( Formica ) and there to the subgenus of slave ants ( Serviformica ).
features
The workers are 5 to 7 millimeters tall, the queens 8 to 10 millimeters and the males 8 to 10 millimeters. The guests and the head are matt black to gray, the thorax is slightly reddish with varying degrees of red coloring. This species can easily be confused with the red-bearded slave ant ( Formica rufibarbis ) or Formica clara . However, the thorax of the Gynen of these species has a larger proportion of red.
distribution
The distribution area of Formica cunicularia extends over large parts of Europe and extends to the southwest of Siberia . In the Alps it occurs up to an altitude of 1,800 meters.
The species is widespread throughout Germany, planar to montane , and is an adaptable culture follower. Formica cunicularia is widespread and common in Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony-Anhalt , Saxony , Thuringia , northwest Bavaria, southern Hesse and the east of Rhineland-Palatinate .
habitat
The red-backed slave ant colonizes xerothermal habitats such as thermophilic, well-sunlit meadows, dry meadows and also lives in peripheral urban areas, e.g. B. on and under streets, but does not penetrate as far into urban habitats as the red-bearded slave ant .
biology
This ant is relatively timid and fleeting, but populous nests can be aggressive when defending. Formica cunicularia is not territorial. Formica cunicularia serves as a host for various socially parasitic ants such as Formica sanguinea . The development period of the workers is two months. Formica cunicularia hibernates from October to March. The sex animals swarm in the early morning between late June and early August.
nutrition
Mainly zoophagous from other insects and arachnids, trophobiotic, but also nectarivorous.
Nest building
The nests of this ant are underground and mostly simple earth nests without nest mounds. If the grass is dense, mounds of earth are also built. The nests are sometimes under larger stones. The colonies consist of 1000 to 1800 workers and are monogynous , rarely weakly polygynous . Colonies spanning multiple nests are unknown. The nest is founded claustrally by a single queen, but also in pleometrosis .
Systematics
Formica cunicularia together with Formica rufibarbis , Formica clara and five other species form the Formica rufibarbis group within the slave ants.
Synonyms
The following names are more recent synonyms for Formica cunicularia :
- Formica fusca var. Rubescens
- Formica cunicularia fuscoides
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Bernhard Seifert : The ants of Central and Northern Europe . lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Görlitz / Tauer 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1
- ↑ a b Seifert, B. and R. Schultz. 2009. A taxonomic revision of the Formica rufibarbis Fabricius, 1793 group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 12: 255-272.