Formica fusca

Taxobox
name =


image_width = 275px
image_caption = "Formica fusca" workers feeding
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
familia = Formicidae
genus = "Formica"
species = "F. fusca"
binomial = "Formica fusca"
binomial_authority = L., 1758

"Formica fusca", the common black ant of Europe, is a palaearctic ant with a range extending from Portugal in the east to Japan in the west and from Italy in the south to Fennoscandia in the north. "F. fusca" nests are usually found in rotten tree stumps or under stones in clearcut areas and along woodland borders and hedgerows.

Colonies are facultatively polygynous (though weakly so); though the queens coexist amicably, contribution to the brood tends to be unequal. Nests are usually small, containing 500-2,000 workers. The workers are large (8-10 mm) and fast moving, though timid. "F. fusca" feeds on small insects, aphid honeydew and extra floral nectaries. Alate (winged) forms are produced in June/July and nuptial flights are in July/August.

A recent study (Hannonen & Sundström 2003) has found evidence of nepotism in "F. fusca", in contrast with previous experiments with other ant species (Snyder 1993); this conclusion has been challenged, however, on the grounds that the observed pattern may result from differences in egg viability (Fournier "et al." 2004).

References

* Collingwood CA (1979) The Formicidae (Hymenoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica, Vol. 8, Scandinavian Science Press, Klampenborg, Denmark.
* Czechowski, W., Radchenko, A. & Czechowska, W. (2002) The Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Poland (Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
* Fournier, D., Aron, S. & Keller, L. (2004) Significant reproductive skew in the facultatively polygynous ant Pheidole pallidula. Molecular Ecology, 13:203-210.
* Hannonen, M. and Sundström, L. (2003) Worker nepotism among polygynous ants. Nature, 421:910.
* Snyder, L. (1993) Non-random behavioural interactions among genetic subgroups in a polygynous ant. Animal Behavior, 46:431-439.