Camera Critters: A Red Ant

Until now, I still assume that black ants are more ‘kind’ than red ants. I’m afraid more of red ants. I think they like bite people every time they feel annoyed. Sorry for not sharing a clear photo.

Based on dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk; it conveyed that the red ant is one of the commonest and there are eight species of them here. Probably you can find colonies of 100 to 300 under stones and paving or sometimes decomposing tree stems, in your gardens. Their sting is the knife-like type and can be painful.

When they locate a food source they put down a trail of pheromone back to the nest and repeat some of the food as in indicator when they converse with the other workers there.

Red Ants prefer sweet food like nectar or the honeydew secreted by Aphids. Some species of ants 'herd' the Aphids to ensure a ready supply of honeydew. Also the Myrmica species are known to tend the larvae of Blue Butterflies whose caterpillars secrete a few drops of sweet liquid which causes the ants to take them into the nest where they feed on the ant larvae.

The greater part of colony members are sterile female workers, but some of the eggs develop into males (drones) whose only function is to mate with the new queens. In the late summer these males and future queens develop wings in order to mate.