Can anyone recommend a literature on the nest structure of the ants of the genus Formica? Preferably about Europe.
Hello Martins; You can go on Google Scholar and try asking for Formica, nest structure. I think that you will fine a good start to your search. There is quite a large literature. Best wishes, Jim Des Lauriers
Dear James, thanks for the answer! On the one hand, yes, Google gives a lot of answers, but at the same time, there are a lot of data sources and a lot about America. As I am not familiar with ants, therefore I look forward to some more specific references to research on species occurring in Europe.
Hello Martins; On Google Scholar I asked for Formica, nest architecture, Europe. I got a number of hits. Here are the links for some of those. Pay particular attention to the authors and check their publications. Cheers, Jim Des Lauriers
https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/44276657/kristiansen2001_organisk_stof_myrer.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0418.2007.01244.x
https://peerj.com/articles/3903/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/44188178/The_Role_of_Wood_Ants_Formica_rufa_grou20160329-14234-1me60hv.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Role_of_Wood_Ants_Formica_rufa_group.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20200221%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200221T001741Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=b46cadc8cd98f512e6c79229bf66a268a99b1ec8989e40db8fcb1a2e50d0f075
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Cappaert/publication/30846740_Nest_structure_and_colony_cycle_of_the_Allegheny_mound_ant_Formica_exsectoides_Forel_Hymenoptera_Formicidae/links/54d3ef360cf2970e4e61bbb0/Nest-structure-and-colony-cycle-of-the-Allegheny-mound-ant-Formica-exsectoides-Forel-Hymenoptera-Formicidae.pdf
Hi James.
There are some rather old Russian papers on this topic. Would this be helpful? If yes, please send me personal message and I will provide you with some of them.
Cheers,
Dmitry
Hi Dmitry; Invite Martins (at the top) to contact you. Thanks for the kind offer!
As an aside, the taxonomy of this group of Formica is very unsettled. In California where I live they remain quite a puzzle. Cheers, Jim Des Lauriers
Dear James, thank you a lot for the exact links! There are answers to my questions. My interest was based on a situation where forestry machines has partially damaged the tops of two (of several) ant nests. And now there is debate whether the nests are destroyed or damaged. Although, in my opinion, it can only be evaluate certainly during the vegetation season. (Unfortunately, ants have been little studied in Latvia, but there are no taxonomic studies at all.)
Martins; Damage to the thatch pile of a nest will be quickly repaired. That part of the nest acts as a warm, humid place to rear the larvae. The workers carry the larvae up into the thatch chambers while the pile is warm. When it cools off the larvae are carried back down below ground. So, it functions as an incubator.
If you would like some Formica identified you might like to contact this ant specialist.
Marek Borowiec. [email protected]
He is professor at the University of Idaho. You can also find him on ResearchGate.
you can ask him for some help. If he agrees you can send him some specimens.
Good luck, Jim Des Lauriers
Ants of the subgenus build terrestrial composite nests.
Despite the external similarity, formica nests have a number of significant features that affect the specificity of their use by ants. The terrestrial part of the nest of Formica exesta ants consists of a temporary layer, a crust layer, the dome itself, and an intermediate layer. The material of all layers includes soil and plant fragments (both collected and cut), the layers differ in the ratio of materials. The frame function is carried out by the cortical the layer is densely packed with a significant amount of soil, which allows ants to give their nests a variety of shapes. The intermediate layer and the upper part of the dome proper contain a significant number of large chambers. The main structural difference between the nests of Formik and anthills of red wood ants is the absence of an internal cone in F. exsecta. This imposes significant restrictions on the size of the F. exesta anthills, in first of all in height. In some cases, F. exsecta ants manage to compensate for the absence of an inner cone by building a nest on various objects (stones, decks, young trees, etc.).
The second key difference between F. exect's domes is the choice of material. Whereas red forest ants mainly build their domes from needles and fragments of branches, for F. exsecta the preferred material is fragments of herbaceous plants, leaves of trees and shrubs, and lichen thalli. At the same time, F. exsecta ants are able to cut fragments of various sizes from leaves. The smallest fragments of F. exsecta they braid the pieces of soil obtained during the excavation of the underground part, and embed these pieces directly into the dome.
In addition to full-fledged residential nests, ants F. exsecta uses auxiliary nests for various purposes. Since ants do not dig soil when building auxiliary nests, the dome consists only of plant fragments. Those. such nests lack an underground part, an intermediate layer and, as a rule, a crustal layer. The diameter of the base of such nests, due to the design features and specifics of their use, rarely exceeds 0.25 m. It is not uncommon for ants to use sedges and grasses as a supporting structure for an auxiliary nest, braiding their stems with collected and cut material.
Auxiliary nests can be temporary (they exist for one season) and relatively permanent. Temporary auxiliary nests are most common in large developed complexes of F. exsecta ant hills. IN Dozens of temporary auxiliary nests are founded annually in such complexes, and the share of all auxiliary nests is up to 50% of the total number of anthills. Moreover, it is not uncommon for ants to build auxiliary nests in series 2–3 nests in a line oriented along the most illuminated edge of the mother nest.
The main functions of temporary auxiliary nests are: structuring the feed area, providing a relay race of food, providing shelter for foragers working in areas remote from the main nest. A series of auxiliary nests are used by ants to select the optimal location for an auxiliary nest (only one nest from the entire series remains within a month) or for a new main nest. When seizing forage lands on a new territory, F. exsecta ants first erect a network of temporary auxiliary nests and only then build main nests. Moreover, the location of the main nests in the new territory may not coincide with the location of the auxiliary nests. Between the main anthills in the spring, when relations are restored, buffer auxiliary
nests. If the connections between the main anthills are of high intensity, then during the whole season between these anthills there can be a series of auxiliary nests or one nest, which is made in the form of a strongly elongated gallery.
Regards, Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin