The Allegheny mound ant (''Formica exsectoides'') is a species of

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

native to the Atlantic area of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Its range extends from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

to parts of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Like other field ants, the Allegheny mound ant builds large

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

s, however this species tends to build some of the largest. Aside from the mounds, the ants also act as pests by killing vegetation within of their mounds. The ants inject

formic acid Formic acid (), systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid, and has the chemical formula HCOOH and structure . It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants. Es ...

into surrounding plants, killing small trees and shrubs. Members of the formic acid producing genus ''Formica'' are known for their citrus taste. The Allegheny mound ant's appearance is very striking: both its head and thorax are red-orange; its gaster is black-brown. The ant's

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

are complex. Several different mounds may be interconnected. The tunnels may extend into the ground and upwards in the mound. The mound serves as a solar incubator for the eggs and larvae. Unlike most other ants, Allegheny mound ants have multiple queens. Maturation from egg to adult takes 2.5–3 months. They hunt a wide assortment of arthropods as a protein source and collect

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

honeydew as a source of sugars. The ants are very aggressive and will bite if a mound is disturbed. In the Northeastern United States, Allegheny mound ants (''Formica exsectoides'') are credited with causing lesions typically in the form of a deep constriction about 10 cm long on the main stem of small individuals of a variety of species, both

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

s and

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

, including

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

and

Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

.Peirson, H.B. 1922. Mound-building ants in forest plantations. J. For. 20(4):325–336. Spruces were not mentioned, but Peirson did not state whether spruces had been examined. The mounds vary in size with age, many reaching 1 m in height and 2 m in diameter. No live trees or shrubs of any height occur in close proximity to the mounds. Formica exsectoides-dorsal.jpg, dorsal view Formica exsectoides-lateral.jpg, lateral view

References

* http://bugs.osu.edu/~bugdoc/Shetlar/factsheet/christmasstree/allegheny_mound_ants.htm
Ants of North America. Species checklists for U.S. States

External links

*
"''Tiny camera explores ant colony''"
on

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q3645939 *Allegheny Hymenoptera of North America Insects of Canada Insects described in 1886 Taxa named by Auguste Forel