Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille, 1802) - Longhorn crazy ant - Cyprus

Family: Formicidae
Tribe: Plagiolepidini
Probably the First record for Cyprus

The longhorn crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis) is a species of small dark-coloured insect in the family Formicidae. These ants are commonly called "crazy ants" because instead of following straight lines, they dash around erratically. They have a broad distribution, including much of the tropics and subtropics and are also found in buildings in more temperate regions, making them one of the most widespread ant species in the world. This species, as well as all others in the ant subfamily Formicinae, cannot sting.

Description
The worker longhorn crazy ant is about 2.3 to 3 mm (0.09 to 0.12 in) long with a brownish-black head, thorax, petiole and gaster, often with a faint blue iridescence. The body has a few short whitish bristles and the antennae and limbs are pale brown. It is easy to distinguish this ant from other members of its genus, Paratrechina, because its antennae and legs are so long. The first segment of each antenna is more than twice as long as the length between its base and the back edge of the head. The eyes are elliptical and set far back on the head. There is no sting, but the ant can bite and then curve its abdomen forwards and secrete formic acid onto the wound. A characteristic of this ant is the way that the workers move around jerkily in apparently random directions.

Distribution and habitat
The Paratrechina probably originated in the tropics of Africa. It has spread to temperate regions around the world and is now present in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia. It is a tropical species of ant, but because of its ability to live in disturbed and artificial habitats, inside buildings and in urban areas, it has been able to spread northwards to Estonia and Sweden and southwards to New Zealand. In the United States, it is present outdoors in much of the south east of the country and also indoors in buildings and warehouses in California, Arizona and the eastern seaboard. In tropical and subtropical areas, as well as being found in buildings it is found in gardens, coastal scrub, lowland rainforest, dry forest, savannah shrubland and by the roadside at elevations of up to 1,765 m (5,791 ft) but at an average height of 175 m (574 ft). It is considered a pest, both agricultural and domestic, in most parts of the tropics and subtropics, and an indoor pest in temperate areas. It is said to be the most widespread species of ant in the world, although the pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) is another challenger for this position.


Behaviour and ecology
Colonies of longhorn crazy ants make their nests in a wide range of either dry or damp sites. These include inside hollow trees, under loose bark, in rotten wood, under logs or stones, among rubbish and under undisturbed debris inside buildings. They thrive in convenience stores, gas stations, apartment blocks, schools and cafés. The workers emerge to forage and the location of the nest can be identified by watching ants carrying food back to the colony. The ants are omnivorous and feed on seeds, dead invertebrates, honeydew, plant secretions, fruit and a range of household scraps. Large food items may be moved by several ants working together. They consume honeydew predominantly in spring and autumn and may tend aphids, mealybugs and scale insects so as to maximise the secretions they produce. During the summer they preferentially seek a high protein diet. In buildings, they collect crumbs and the insect corpses found under lights.

The longhorn crazy ant is able to invade new habitats and out-compete other species of ant. In 1991, in the large closed dome of the research station Biosphere 2 in the Arizona Desert, no particular ant species was dominant. By 1996, the longhorn crazy ant had virtually replaced all the other ant species. It fed almost exclusively on the honeydew secreted by the large numbers of scale insects and mealybugs present, and other invertebrates were greatly diminished. The ones that remained were either well armoured, such as millipedes and woodlice, or were tiny and lived underground, such as springtails and mites.

The inquiline wingless ant cricket (Myrmecophilus americanus) is often found living in the nest of the longhorn crazy ant and is kleptoparasitic on it, stealing food scraps brought back by the workers and encouraging them to regurgitate food. It may be assisted in this symbiosis by mimicry as it resembles the gaster of the queen in both size and shape.

Life cycle
In tropical regions, male and female sexual forms may appear outside colonies at any time of year; but, in Florida, they appear between May and September. On a warm damp evening, many males may emerge from the nest and mill about on the ground. Meanwhile, the workers congregate on nearby vegetation and periodically a wingless female comes out of the nest, although mating is difficult to observe in the constantly moving mass of ants. Although the males can fly, nuptial flights do not take place. On other occasions, massive numbers of workers sometimes emerge from colonies and carpet the ground. Many square metres may be covered by a sheet of workers, many of them carrying brood, with many wingless females scattered among them. The reasons for these gatherings is unclear.


Longhorn crazy ants are able to mate with their siblings without showing any of the normal negative effects of inbreeding. Although the queen produces workers through normal sexual means, her daughter queens are her genetic clones and her sons are the genetic clones of her mate. The male and female gene pools thus remain completely separate (assuming workers never reproduce) and this has allowed the longhorn crazy ant to become one of the most widespread invasive species in the tropics. The process is known as double cloning and was discovered by evolutionary biologist Morgan Pearcy of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_crazy_ant

Photos at Larnaka 3/11/2016 by Michael Hadjiconstantis

Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) baldaccii Emery 1894 - Carpenter ant - Cyprus

Carpenter ants (Camponotus spp.), are large (0.3 to 1.0 in or 0.76 to 2.54 cm) ants indigenous to many forested parts of the world.

They build nests inside wood consisting of galleries chewed out with their mandibles, preferably in dead, damp wood. They do not consume the wood, however, unlike termites. Sometimes, carpenter ants hollow out sections of trees. They also commonly infest wooden buildings and structures, and are a widespread nuisance and major cause of structural damage. One of the most familiar species associated with human habitation in the United States is the black carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus). The genus includes over 1,000 species

Habitat
Carpenter ant species reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying, or hollow wood, most commonly in forest environments. They cut "galleries" into the wood grain to provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest. Certain parts of a house, such as around and under windows, roof eaves, decks and porches, are more likely to be infested by carpenter ants because these areas are most vulnerable to moisture.[citation needed]

Carpenter ants have been known to construct extensive underground tunneling systems. These systems often lead to and end at some food source – often aphid colonies, where the ants extract and feed on honeydew. These tunneling systems also often exist in trees. The colonies typically include a central "parent" colony surrounded and supplemented by smaller satellite colonies.

Food
Carpenter ants are foragers that typically eat parts of other dead insects or substances derived from other insects. Common foods for them include insect parts, "honey dew" produced by aphids, or some secretions from plants. Carpenter ants can increase the survivability of aphids when they attend to them. They attend to any aphid species, but can also express preference for specific ones.

Most species of carpenter ants forage at night. When foraging, they usually collect and consume dead insects. Some species less commonly collect live insects. When they discover a dead insect, workers surround it and extract its bodily fluids to be carried back to the nest. The remaining chitin-based shell is left behind. Occasionally, the ants bring the chitinous head of the insect back to the nest, where they also extract its inner tissue. The ants can forage individually or in small or large groups, though they often opt to do so individually. Different colonies in close proximity may have overlapping foraging regions, though they typically do not assist each other in foraging. Their main food sources normally include proteins and carbohydrates.

When workers find food sources, they communicate this information to the rest of the nest. They use biochemical pheromones to mark the shortest path that can be taken from the nest to the source. When a sizable number of workers follows this trail, the strength of the cue increases and a foraging trail is established. This ends when the food source is depleted. Foraging trails can either be under or above ground.

Although carpenter ants do not tend to be extremely aggressive, they have developed mechanisms to maximize their provision from a food source when that same food source is visited by a competing organism. This is accomplished in different ways. Sometimes they colonize an area near a relatively static food supply. More often, they develop a systemic way to visit the food source with alternating trips by different individual ants or groups. This allows them to decrease the gains of intruders because the intruders tend to visit in a scattered, random, and unorganized manner. The ants, however, visit the sources systematically such that they lower the mean standing crop. They tend to visit more resource-dense food areas in an attempt to minimize resource availability for others. That is, the more systematic the foraging behavior of the ants, the more random that of its competitors.

Contrary to popular belief, carpenter ants do not actually eat wood because they are unable to digest cellulose. They only create tunnels and nests within it.

Symbionts
All ants in this genus, and some related genera, possess an obligate bacterial endosymbiont called Blochmannia. This bacterium has a small genome, and retains genes to biosynthesize essential amino acids and other nutrients. This suggests the bacterium plays a role in ant nutrition. Many Camponotus species are also infected with Wolbachia, another endosymbiont that is widespread across insect groups. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Photos at Kampos 21/05/2016 by Michael Hadjiconstantis

Crematogaster sp. - Cocktail ants - Acrobat ants - Cyprus

Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Crematogastrini

Photos at Kato Drys 26/3/2016, by Michael Hadjiconstantis. 

Crematogaster is an ecologically diverse genus of ants found worldwide, which are characterised by a distinctive heart-shaped gaster (abdomen), which gives them one of their common names, the Saint Valentine ant. Members of this genus are also known as cocktail ants because of their habit of raising their abdomens when alarmed. Most of species are arboreal. These ants are sometimes known as acrobat ants. Acrobat ants acquire food largely through predation of other insects, like wasps.They use venom to stun their prey and a complex trail-laying process to lead comrades to food sources. Like many social insects, they reproduce in nuptial flights and the queen stores sperm as she starts a new nest.

Predatory behavior
Acrobat ants hunt both large and small prey. When it is time to hunt, foragers will typically recruit nearby ants to assist them. The ants can mark and detect their prey by specific contact. When they make contact, they immediately attack, sometimes releasing a small amount of venom with a sting. They also release an alarm pheromone to alert still more workers that prey has been seized. If other workers are present, the ants will "spread-eagle" the prey. When the prey is spread-eagled, all limbs are outstretched and it is carried along the backsides of the ants. The ants carry arolia, or pad-like projections that are used to carry the prey back to the nest. These arolia are critical because acrobat ants are arboreal and will often need to travel up trees to return to their nesting location. If the prey is small and there is only one ant, it can carry the prey individually. If other workers are present, the ant will recruit carrying assistance, even if the prey is small. Acrobat ants typically eat grasshoppers, termites, wasps and other small insects.

Habitat
C. castanea worker tending a treehopper in a Pigeonwood tree. Acrobat ants can be found either outdoors or indoors with great frequency in each case. Outdoors, acrobat ants are usually arboreal, but they often live in many common areas in the wild. These areas are typically moist and are often dark. They can often be found in trees, collections of wood (like firewood), and under rocks. Indoors, nests have been found inside homes around electrical wires. These locations are often very near large food supplies and may be around other ant nests. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lepisiota sp. - Cyprus

Family: Formicidae

Lepisiota is an Old World genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae.They nest in rotten wood, in standing trees or in the ground, generally in less forested areas. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Photos at Tamassos dam, 8/1/2016 by Michael Hadjiconstantis

Ants - Aphaenogaster cf. simonellii Emery 1894 - Cyprus

Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae

Aphaenogaster is a genus of myrmicine ants. About 200 species have been described, including 18 fossil species. They occur worldwide except from South America and Southern Africa.


They are often confused with Pheidole or Pheidologeton. These two have major and minor workers, while Aphaenogaster has only a single worker caste. Pheidole has a 3-segmented club on its antenna, while Aphaenogaster has four segments and a larger body size. Pheidologeton has an 11-segmented antenna, while the antenna in Aphaenogaster is 12-segmented.

In Australia, they often build dense, conspicuous nests. Nest entrances are generally funnel-shaped with diameters of up to 4 cm, which resulted in the common name funnel ants. These nests can be a serious problem for golfers or on pastures and unsealed airstrips, because the fragile surface easily collapses under pressure. Where it occurs, Aphaenogaster bioturbation is an important soil and landscape process.

Aphaenogaster probably gets most of its food from tended aphids on the roots of plants, which explains that they are rarely seen on the surface. The funnel-shaped openings could play a role in trapping arthropods, which are also eaten. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos Machairas, 1/11/2015 by Michael Hadjiconstantis

Ants - Trichomyrmex sp. - Cyprus

Trichomyrmex is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Described by Mayr in 1865, it was raised as a genus in 2015. These ants are endemic to multiple continents.

Photos  Geri 14/10/2015 by George Konstantinou

Ants - Formica clara (Forel, 1886) - Cyprus

Family: Formicidae

Formica is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, thatching ants, and field ants.Formica is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae. The type species of genus Formica is the European red wood ant Formica rufa
As the name wood ant implies, many Formica species live in wooded areas where there exists no shortage of material with which they can thatch their mounds. One shade-tolerant species is F. lugubris. However, sunlight is important to most Formica species, and colonies rarely survive for any considerable period in deeply shaded, dense woodland. The majority of species, especially outside the rufa species group, are inhabitants of more open woodlands or treeless grassland or shrubland. In North America, at least, these habitats had a long history of frequent landscape-scale fires that kept them open before European settlement. Conversion to agriculture and fire suppression have reduced the abundance of most American Formica, while the cessation of traditional haycutting seems to have had the same effect in Europe. However, at least a few Formica species may be found in a wide range of habitats from cities to seasides to grasslands to swamps to forests of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos Livadi tou Ppashia 8/7/2015  by George Konstantinou

Ants - Messor sp. - Cyprus

Messor is a myrmicine genus of ants with more than 100 species, all of which are harvester ants; the generic name comes from the Roman god of crops and harvest, Messor. The subterranean colonies tend to be found in open fields and near roadsides, openings are directly to the surface. The Vessomessor genus was recently added to messor adding 8 more species.

Colonies can achieve huge sizes and are notable for their intricately designed granaries in which seeds are stored in dry conditions, preventing germination. The structure of Messor spp. nests is complex and the genus on the whole is one of very accomplished architects.

Messor spp. are polymorphic and have a distinct caste of macrocephalic dinoergates whose role is of carrying and cutting the large seeds which comprise much of the colonies' subsistence. Althouth they primarily feed on seeds, they occasionally eat insects and snails. Some snail shells possibly are taken into the nest because of their grain-like shape.

Equipped with a tough shining cuticle, Messor spp. are slow moving and form long, seed-carrying runs. Colonies tend to be monogynous and are founded by a single queen alone..From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Messor  queen - 9/11/2017 by George Konstantinou

Photos Geri 27/9/2015 by George Konstantinou

Male

Female & Male (back)

Photos at Lakatamia, 17/12/2015 by Michael Hadjiconstantis

Ants - Tapinoma sp. - Cyprus

Tapinoma (from Greek ταπείνωμα low position) is a genus of ants that belongs to the subfamily Dolichoderinae. The genus currently comprises 74 described species distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Members of are generalized foragers, nesting in a wide variety of habitats, ranging from grasslands, open fields, woodlands, to inside buildings. The majority of species nest in the ground under objects such as stones or tree logs, other species build nests under bark of logs and stumps, in plant cavities, insect galls or refuse piles. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.Photos Geri 17/9/2015  by George Konstantinou

Ants - Plagiolepis sp. - Cyprus

Plagiolepis is an ant genus of the formic acid-producing subfamily Formicinae. The genus is found in tropical and temperate regions of the Old World.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.Photos Geri by George Konstantinou