Ant Taxonomy Genus – Formica

Ant Mania > Family > SubFamily > Genus (Formica)

About Genus Formica

Formica is a genus of ants belonging to the family Formicidae. Formica species are commonly referred to as wood ants because they often nest in decaying wood or form mounds in soil.

The most common species is the redwood ant (F. rufa). Other species include the black garden ant (F. fusca), and the yellow meadow ant (F. pratensis).

They range across much of Europe, Asia, and North America – from northern Scandinavia and Siberia down to southern Portugal and Italy in Europe, through Central Asia into China and Japan; north into Alaska across Canada, then south into Mexico; eastward across much of North America to New England and Florida in US; also found in Northern Africa including Morocco, Tunisia & Algeria.

Habitat: It IS found in temperate and boreal regions throughout the world.

They inhabit woodlands, open areas, grasslands, and wetlands. Nests: Nests are constructed underground or inside decaying logs.

The colony size can range from several hundred to tens of thousands of workers and multiple queens.

Social Characteristics: Workers will forage as a group to locate food sources such as seeds, fruit, or honeydew-producing insects like aphids. They also communicate by exchanging chemical signals called pheromones through their antennae.

Social Parasitism: In some species (such as F. lugubris), worker ants will invade colonies of other ant species in order to steal resources from them without contributing anything in return – thus engaging in social parasitism behavior similar to that seen among mammals such as meerkats or wolves.

Subfamilies Of Ants