Tapinoma melanocephalum

Taxobox
name = Ghost ant


image_caption = worker
image_width = 250px
status = secure
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
familia = Formicidae
genus = "Tapinoma"
species = "T. melanocephalum"
binomial = "Tapinoma melanocephalum"
binomial_authority = (Fabricius, 1793)

"Tapinoma melanocephalum" is a species of ant that goes by the common name ghost ant.They are recognised by their dark head and pale or translucent legs and gaster (abdomen). This colouring makes this tiny ant (frac|1|16 of an inch, 1.5 mm) seem even smaller.

The ghost ant's diet consists mainly of sweets but they will also feed on grease and occasionally living or dead insects. They exhibit a high need for moisture, and although colonies are usually established outside, they can readily "set up camp" inside domestic houses during dry conditions.

In the 1990s, ghost ants were found primarily in southern Florida, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

The ghost ant is thought to be so named because the legs and abdomen of the insect look transparent, with only the head and thorax being dark brown in colour.

Observed in infested buildings with the naked eye they are quite difficult to distinguish from pharaoh ants, being virtually of the same size.

Like a lot of small insects a positive identification can only be made once is a specimen is looked at down a microscope.

The worker ants form trails like pharaoh ants, taking food back to the nest, and also like pharaoh ants, the queens are communal, so that there can be several queens in a colony, and several thousand workers. New colonies can be formed when a queen and some workers migrate away.

Pest control

One laboratory evaluation in 1996 [cite journal |quotes=no |author=John Klotz |title=Laboratory evaluation of boric acid liquid bait on colonies of "Tapinoma melanocephalum", Argentine Ants and Pharaoh Ants |journal=Journal of Economic Entomology |year=1996 |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=673–677] tested 1% boric acid in a sucrose solution, against a few ant species including ghost ants. With a three-day continuous exposure to boric acid, the number of ghost ant workers was reduced by 97% and by the 8th week all ghost ant queens were eliminated. Interestingly they found that with hydramethylon (an active ingredient in a ready to use bait) none of the ghost ant colonies was eliminated.

A new development in the U.K is that the availability of some concentrates has been phased out due to the influence of the European legislation such as the Biocide Directive.

This ant has another, less often used, common name, "tiny yellow house ant".

References

External Links

* [http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/ants/ghost_ant.htm "Tapinoma melanocephalum"] on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site