We’re not finished with our discussion about our ants. The red ants near my lakefront are thatched mound ants, and they are way more impressive than most of us imagine.
Formica obscuripes, the western
thatching ant, is a native species of ant in the family Formicidae. It produces
large mounds covered by small pieces of plant material. I have several such
mounds on my property. One of them is nearly two feet in height. The number of
adult workers per colony may reach up to 40,000. Most remarkable, some colonies
can survive 50 years or more. This happens because they often have multiple
queens (a polygynous system) and, over time, their mounds can expand, split, or
even merge with nearby colonies. In this sense, a single mound can remain
“alive” for generations.
The colony I mentioned in my blog
yesterday is something near 20 years old. I believe it is actually the
continuation of a mound that existed only ten or twelve feet away and thrived
through the 1980s and 1990s. I recall on several occasions having to shoo away
young boys who were pestering that colony with sticks.
Bit by bit, the ants raise their
thatched mounds, weaving needles and twigs into a fortress. Within, they tend
the queen, while workers spill out to forage the nearby earth. They survive our
long, harsh winters cozy within their compound and then march on again in the
warmer months, ignoring any and all turmoil around them.
—Mitchell Hegman
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