Wood ants (Formica cunicularia)
Formica cunicularia · Formica
Wood ants (Formica cunicularia). Recorded flying from June through July. Reddish-orange head, reddish-orange mesosoma, black gaster. Reddish-orange head and mesosoma against a sharply blackish gaster. Recorded near 8 of the 190 locations Dealate tracks.
When do wood ants fly?
Recorded flying from June through July.
Flight calendar
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Queen appearance
Reddish-orange head, reddish-orange mesosoma, black gaster. Reddish-orange head and mesosoma against a sharply blackish gaster.
fast, continuous, rarely pausing
Founding care
Fully claustral: seal her in a test tube setup, somewhere dark and undisturbed. She raises the first brood on her own wing muscles and needs no food or opening until the first workers appear.
Needs a winter diapause: a cool, dark rest period each year.
Diet: Insects, meat, sugar water, honey etc.
Intermediate · Queen ~9-11 mm
Read more on AntWiki →Care data from antkeeping.info (CC BY 4.0).
Habitat
Soil · also thatched mound · typical for this genus
After a flight, watch bare or grassy ground for wingless queens. Scan open ground near woodland for wandering queens and thatch mounds.
Recorded near
Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Nottingham, Derby, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Dudley, Walsall, Mansfield, Telford, Gloucester, Newcastle under Lyme, Solihull, Burton upon Trent, Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Sutton Coldfield, West Bromwich, WorcesterBristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Swindon, Bournemouth, Newport, Poole, Mendip, BathDundeeIpswich, Norwich, Saint PetersLondon, Brent, Islington, Reading, Southend-on-Sea, Brighton, Milton Keynes, City of Westminster, Northampton, Bexley, Luton, Barking, Archway, Sutton, Croydon, Ilford, Slough, Oxford, Enfield Town, Harrow, Cambridge, Basildon, High Wycombe, Colchester, Tottenham, Watford, Crawley, Worthing, Chelmsford, Walthamstow, Dagenham, Basingstoke, Maidstone, Bedford, Woking, Eastbourne, Gillingham, BecontreePeterborough, LincolnPlymouth, ExeterSouthampton, PortsmouthMore Formica species
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