''Formica cunicularia'' is a species of ant found all over Europe. They are especially common in western
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and southern
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, but they can be found from southern
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
to northern
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and from
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
to the
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...
. In England, Donisthorpe records the species as having occurred as far north as
Bewdley
Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Sev ...
in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
.Donisthorpe, Horace St. John Kelly. (1915) British Ants: Their Life-History and Classification . Reprinted 2013, London: Forgotten Books. pp. 318–320. In ''Formica cunicularia'', the worker is an ashy grey black color and is usually 4.0–6.5 mm long. The males are found to have a uniformly dark body and are 8.0–9.0 mm long. The queen is yellowish red to dark black and is 7.5–9.0 mm.
Habitat
''F. cunicularia'' has habitat ranging from open to relatively cluttered to visually rich. In Finland, Albrecht found that all nests were small, with single entrances in dry, hot environments with low vegetation. They nest under stones or in small earth mounds. Nests are usually separate, containing one
queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
. ''F. cunicularia'', unlike most other ''
Formica
''Formica'' is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, thatching ants, and field ants. ''Formica'' is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae. The type species of genus ''For ...
'' ''fusca''-group species, can form noticeable hillocks over its nests, and in addition to these produces ''rufibarbis''-like runs in the vicinity of its nest.
Biology
When found in
arid
A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...
and
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
regions, these ants feed primarily on seeds and as such, their anthills have a much higher density of seeds, but due to the seed preference of the ants there is less seed diversity. ''F. cunicularia'' will follow irregular paths while they forage, but will follow a straight path home when finished. They do this by a process called
path integration
Path integration is the method thought to be used by animals for dead reckoning.
History
Charles Darwin first postulated an inertially-based navigation system in animals in 1873. That isn't the only mechanism that explains their homing behavior though. They can also find a path home based on visual cues in their surroundings. An interesting facet of their homing behavior is that they will combine these two methods when in unfamiliar terrain. ''F. cunicularia'' have the ability to discern between multiple shades of a color and they are particularly good at distinguishing two different greens; This is probably because they often live in very green rich environments. They live in small colonies of around 5000 individuals. They are predaceous but are often scavengers. Its appearance and habits ally it, to some extent, with ''
Formica rufibarbis
''Formica rufibarbis'' is a European formicine ant of the ''Formica fusca'' group. In the classification by Auguste Forel, it is treated in the subgenus '' Serviformica''. ''F. rufibarbis'' is subject to a Species Action Plan (SAP) in Englan ...
'', although the former's red markings are far less conspicuous.
Horace Donisthorpe
Horace St. John Kelly Donisthorpe (17 March 1870 – 22 April 1951) was an eccentric United Kingdom, British myrmecologist and coleopterist, memorable in part for his enthusiastic championing of the renaming of the genus ''Lasius'' after him as ...
comments:
: Forel points out that 'Formica fusca var.''''rubescens'' ''F. cunicularia''has frequently been confounded with ''rufibarbis'', and it is probable that some British records of ... ''rufibarbis'' really refer to this variety.
Lichen dispersal
An interesting coincidence of these ants is that they help
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.soredia
Soredia are common reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria or gr ...
of the lichen can attach to the ants by virtue of being so small. In areas where they overlap we see more of certain types of lichen growing due to the ''F. cunicularia's'' help. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to the ants.
As a slave species
''F. cunicularia'' is a host of the
slave-making ant
Slave-making ants are brood parasites that capture broods of other ant species to increase the worker force of their colony. After emerging in the slave-maker nest, slave workers work as if they were in their own colony, while parasite workers o ...
''
Polyergus rufescens
''Polyergus rufescens'' is a species of slave-making ant native to southern Europe and parts of Asia, commonly referred to as the European Amazon ant or as the slave-making ant. It is an obligatory social parasite, unable to feed itself or lo ...
.'' Slave makers ''P. rufescens'' will raid to kill adults in the ''F. cunicularia'' colony and steal their brood to be raised to do domestic tasks. ''P. rufescens'' will choose to parasitize ''F. cunicularia'' over other choices even when available. A gland not unique to ''F. cunicularia'' is the
Dufour's gland
Dufour's gland is an abdominal gland of certain insects, part of the anatomy of the ovipositor or sting apparatus in female members of Apocrita. The diversification of Hymenoptera took place in the Cretaceous and the gland may have developed at a ...
. It is involved with many behaviors of ants, such as trail following, clustering, but also alarm and defense. When ''F. cunicularia'' daubed with extract from a slave-maker ant's Dufour's gland, there was a significant decrease in aggression towards invading workers. This facilitates the takeover of the hosts colony. Another possible reason for ''F. cunicularia'' being chosen as a host species more often because they don't resist as much as other species. In an experiment involving cocoons of multiple species they didn't discriminate between their own and the slave-making species.