Project Atlantic. Step 7. From Soulac to Royan. An easy day. I take the boat accross the Gironde with my bicycle. Royan holds on to its dream of plastic and concrete. The café des bains has become a cheap surf shop. #projectatlantic #royan #formica #bike
The #antbagbeetle #Clytra laeviuscula (#Chrysomelidae, #Coleoptera) is a #phytophagous #beetle #species widespread in Europe with a #myrmicophilic relationship of the #larvae and #pupae to #antnests of the genera #Formica, #Lasius and Camponotus. The larva lives mainly from the food of the ant larvae. It is protected from ant attacks by own dropping pieces (#skatoconches). Pupation also takes place in this protected manner. #evolution #biodiversity
© #StefanFWirth Berlin 2024
Ants are not ideal pollinators, as they don't move as efficiently among plants as do flying insects. But they are capabable of picking up and moving at least some pollen, as demonstrated by this Formica incerta field ant on Queen Anne's Lace. Townsend, Tennessee.
A wily field ant- Formica dolosa- gathers nectar from a flower at Indiana Dunes National Park.
My #Formica #subsericea queen is very skittish and if there is a loud nose or vibrations she runs out of her nest and tries to hide in the water feeder. Only she is much too large for this to work. Poor girl.
Pleased with this shot of a field ant (Formica subsericea) grabbing a pile of eggs. Tennessee.
Even the queen moves quickly. They are always fighting over who gets to carry what. There is generally a small clutch of eggs in the nest and I have never seen them set it down. An ant is always proudly holding the cluster of new eggs and she won’t let her sisters help her hold it. I think they must sit it down when it’s dark and quiet in the nest— but if I’m taking photos? well we never get to see them calm first that reason! Ants notice photographers! #formica #ants #antvideo
Having fun with a new clip-on macro lens watching some #formica (pratensis, I think) that seem to have made home on raspberries 
They’ve curled up some leaves with many ants hiding inside them, but still no aphids nowhere to be seen
We’ve had these ants (Black-backed Meadow Ants, I think) in the garden for couple years now. The workers seem to be larger than last year, I guess they’re doing well . Ants often get bad rep in #gardening, but we never had any issues with these, all the berry plants around them are as productive as ever and here they even seem to maybe be getting in on #pollination
The evolution of social parasitism in #Formica #ants revealed by a global #phylogeny!
@ mareklborowiec et al. 2020 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.17.423324v1
Molecular #phylogeny of #Formica #ants!
Parasitic colony founding is likely to be an intermediary step between free-living hosts and slave-maker parasites
A desert field ant, Formica perpilosa, on the banks of the Rio Grande in Big Bend, Texas.
Schon der dritte(!) Raubameisenraubzug, den wir in 24h beobachten!
Das schwül-heiße Wetter mögen sie. Jeder Raubzug ist diesmal mit viel Beute zurückgekommen. Sie sind eindrucksvoll zielstrebig und schnell.
Wir beobachten sie schon seit Jahren. Hunderte (?) Ameisen laufen in einer fast perfekt geraden Linie vom Nachbargrundstück kommend über unseres zum nächsten Nachbarn. Einige Minuten später laufen sie genauso gerade wieder zurück, und wenn sie erfolgreich waren, trägt jede #Ameise eine geraubte Puppe. Aus diesen Puppen werden Ameisen schlüpfen, die im Nest der Raubameisen leben und arbeiten werden, obwohl sie einer anderen Art angehören.
Anscheinend geht es sowohl dem Raubameisennest, als auch denen der Ausgeraubten soweit gut genug, dass diese Beziehungen aufrecht erhalten werden können. 
Horizontal.
#Formica, lead paint, old replacement #window.
Greetings from #Baltimore.
#phone #photo
#SilentSunday
L’autre jour, j’ai ramassé cette horloge en #formica sur une brocante pour pas (trop) cher. Évidemment, elle ne marche pas 
. Oxidation ? Vous savez comment on fait pour tenter de récupérer ça ?
A queen ant, Formica vinculans, after her mating flight. Illinois.
I just think MC Esher did an excellent job drawing this ant. Ant fans, was his model #Camponotus or #Formica ? what do you think? The mesonomal hump seems ambiguous… This is a worker but i see dimples that could be ocelli what is going on here?#ants
