Wood ants

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Wood ants
Great meadow ant (Formica pratensis)

Great meadow ant ( Formica pratensis )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Family : Ants (Formicidae)
Subfamily : Scale ants (Formicinae)
Genre : Wood ants
Scientific name
Formica
Linnaeus , 1758

The forest ants ( Formica ) are a genus of ants (Formicidae) from the subfamily of the scale ants (Formicinae). There are 297 described species worldwide, of which over 150 species occur exclusively in the Palearctic . In Germany , 23 species are represented, which are divided into four sub-genera.

A distinction is made between the real wood ants ( Formica sensu stricto ), the kerb ants ( Coptoformica ), the less conspicuous slave ants ( Serviformica ) and a small group of facultative slave hunters, the predatory ants ( Raptiformica ). Independent colony establishment is only possible with the slave ants ( Serviformica ), while the young queens of the other three groups establish their initial colonies in a socially parasitic manner with Serviformica . Then it spreads through the formation of branch nests.

Wood ants are an important part of the forest ecosystem , as they eat many forest pests (such as the bark beetle ) on the one hand and serve as a food source for animals such as the green woodpecker on the other . They also play a role in the spread of seeds and aeration of the soil.

features

A red wood ant ( Formica rufa )
A red wood ant foraging for food
Red wood ants transporting their prey away

The representatives of the forest ants belong to the more conspicuous ants in Central Europe . The workers can reach lengths of over one centimeter and are clearly two-colored. The back of the head, parts of the mesosoma and the gaster are black to dark brown in color, the rest of the body is reddish. Many representatives of the Serviformica subgenus , for example the gray-black slave ant ( Formica fusca ), are black throughout. In all species the metanotum is very deep, so that, seen from the side, a clear indentation is visible above between the mesonotum and epinotum .

The mandibles are strongly built and have eight teeth on the chewing margin, rarely more than eight. The third tooth, seen from the tip of the mandible, is considerably smaller and shorter than the fourth; the fourth tooth is also larger than the rest of the more interior teeth. The antennae consist of 12 segments and arise just next to the upper edge of the forehead plate ( clypeus ). Unlike the garden ants ( Lasius ), the workers also have fully developed point eyes ( Ocelli ), which are arranged in a triangle on the forehead. The garden ants are also much smaller and the flagella of their antennae are much shorter.

The compound eyes are very well developed for ants, especially the males. The blood-red predatory ant ( Formica sanguinea ) has the most developed compound eyes with the highest number of visual cells ( ommatidia ). The sex animals are winged, the young queen strips off her wings after the wedding flight, whereby the break points remain clearly visible.

Way of life

The wood ants overwinter without brooding and without sex animals, as the queen stops egg production in late summer and all stages of development have developed into workers by winter.

Colony formation

Pronounced polygyny is common, as is the formation of communities of states that include several nests.

The polygyne Japanese Formica yessensis forms very large polydome nest communities. One report describes 45,000 interconnected nests in an area of ​​2.6 square kilometers. This super colony consists of 306 million workers and 1,080,000 queens.

The densest European ant population is the weakly bristled mountain ant ( F. aquilonia ). The deposit is located in the Czech Republic in the Blansk Forest and consists of 3,200 nests on three square kilometers. This is likely a single super colony.

Nest building

Anthill of the genus Formica
Wood ants
Nest mounds of the genus Formica

The representatives from the subgenus Serviformica build ordinary earth nests with small domes. The mound-building forest ants , which include the species native to Europe from the subgenus Formica , Coptoformica and Raptiformica , build particularly conspicuous nests . In Formica rufa and Formica polyctena, these anthills can reach an extension of several meters and can be found at forest edges or clearings. The scattered domes are laid out rather flat in sunny places. The shadier the position of the domes, the higher the hill becomes.

nutrition

The wood ants are omnivores and feed mainly on the excretions of the tree lice , the so-called honeydew . This covers most of your energy needs. In addition, as predators , they hunt other insects on the ground and on trees in the vicinity of the nest. This protein-rich diet is used to raise the brood.

The diet of an average native wood ant nest of approximately one million individuals per year includes:

Historical use

For centuries, in parts of Austria , Bavaria and Bohemia , the pupae of the forest ants were collected, dried and sold as birdseed in markets . Ameisler were responsible for this, and they established their own trade, especially in Lower Austria until around the middle of the 19th century. In addition, the animals were processed into medicines in folk medicine, which should help against rheumatism , for example .

Danger

causes

The forest ants population has declined sharply in the local forests. This is mostly due to interventions in the living space:

  • Traffic route construction and settlement construction
  • Intensive forestry
  • Natural disasters / storm damage
  • Application of pesticides and insecticides

Even minor disturbances to the nest by small game, pets and humans can have a negative impact. Interventions in the nest dome disturb the temperature balance of the nest and can destroy the brood and lead to the death of the colony.

Protective measures

Even well-intentioned protective measures represent an intervention in the natural environment of the ants and often have negative effects. Targeted branch nest formation, for example, has not proven itself and tends to weaken the population. Mechanical protective measures such as wire mesh hoods only bring dubious success and represent a very unnatural interference with the environment.

Appropriate protective measures include:

  • Influencing forestry
  • Enforcement of nature and species protection regulations as well as political influence
  • Educational work among the population
  • Comprehensive inventory with correct identification of species as a database for identifying good and bad developments and their causes
  • Planning and implementation of emergency and rescue relocations
  • Protective fences and brushwood covers (only in exceptional cases)

Protection provisions

As wild animals, all ants enjoy a so-called minimum protection. This general protection results from Section 41 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act .

The mound-building forest ants belong to the particularly protected animal species in Germany after the new version of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance of February 16, 2005. According to § 42 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act , they may not be taken from nature or even killed. Any intervention in the nest structure is strictly prohibited. There is a possession and trade ban.

Many wood ants are endangered and are on the Red List of Endangered Species .

Systematics

The following species are represented in Central Europe :

Synonyms

The following names are synonyms for the genus Formica :

  • Adformica Lomnicki, 1925
  • Hypochira Buckley, 1866
  • Neoformica Wheeler, 1913

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Formica. Tree Of Life web project, accessed June 7, 2007 .
  2. ↑ a b Bernhard Seifert : The ants of Central and Northern Europe . lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Görlitz / Tauer 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1
  3. ↑ Forest ecology - ant enclosure ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c Hölldobler and Wilson : The Ants . Springer (1990) ISBN 3-540-52092-9
  5. ↑ Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4
  6. ↑ a b c Dieter Otto: The red wood ants . (3rd, revised and expanded edition.) Westarp Sciences 2005; 192 pages, 77 illustrations, ISBN 3-89432-718-9
  7. ↑ Oberpfälzer Freilandmuseum (Ed.): The forest ants educational trail , 1998, ISBN 3-928354-05-1
  8. ^ A b Franz Groiß: Ant and folk culture. In: Ants in Biology and Folk Culture: Appreciated, Cursed, Omnipresent. Exhibition ants - unknown fascination on the doorstep. Lower Austrian State Museum , St. Pölten / Biology Center Linz 2009, pp. 165–175. PDF .
  9. ↑ John Mayerhofer : The Amastrager. Illustrated Wiener Extrablatt , October 23, 1898, No. 292, p. 7. Quoted in: Volksleben im Land um Wien. Customs and costumes. Descriptions in words and pictures by Johannes Mayerhofer, collected, supplemented and provided with a life picture by Karl M. Klier. Manutiuspresse , Vienna 1969, pp. 81-85.
  10. ↑ Wood ants are under nature protection. Deutsche Ameisenschutzwarte eV, accessed on May 21, 2007 .

literature

  • Karl Gößwald : The wood ant
    • Volume 1: Biological Basics, Ecology and Behavior. Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-89104-475-5 .
    • Volume 2: The wood ant in the forest ecosystem, its use and protection. Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89104-476-3 .
  • Dieter Otto: The red wood ants . (3rd, revised and expanded edition.) Westarp Sciences 2005; 192 pages, 77 b / w and color illustrations, ISBN 3-89432-718-9
  • Gustav Wellenstein : Forest-dwelling ants. Their importance, their biology, their protection and protection. 2nd, revised edition. Kempten 1990.

Web links

Commons : Wood Ants ( Formica )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files