#3531 · 🐝 bees, wasps & ants

Southern Wood Ant

🇳🇱 Behaarde rode bosmier ·Formica rufa

NTnear threatened 🐝 Bees, wasps & ants 📍 in the Netherlands

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Татьяна Дензанова · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © Max Devis · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © Philipp Hoenle · CC0
4. © Philipp Hoenle · CC0
5. © beatrice_m · CC BY-NC 4.0
6. © Max Devis · CC BY-NC 4.0
7. 6733 Wekerom, Holandia:© Bartosz Fidor · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. 6581 Malden, Holandia:© Bartosz Fidor · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. Overasselt, Holandia:© Bartosz Fidor · CC BY-NC 4.0
10. Loonse and Drunense Dunes National Park, Kaatsheuvel, North Brabant, NL:© no rights reserved · CC0

what is it?

Formica rufa , also known as the red wood ant , southern wood ant , or horse ant , is a boreal member of the Formica rufa group of ants, and is the type species for that group. It is native to Europe and Anatolia but is also found in North America, in both coniferous and broad-leaf broken woodland and parkland. Workers are bicolored red and brownish-black, with a dorsal dark patch on the head and promensonotum, and are polymorphic,...

base stats

NL sightings 183iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 8,865iNaturalist observations
threat NTnear threatened

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

Spotted 183 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #29 most seen of the bees, wasps & ants in NL.
8,865 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named in 1761 (265 years ago).