Odorous Ants? - Tapinoma

Thanks

for all the ino on odorous ants. Next time I'll test it out and see if it smells when squished.

… tom murray, 28 March, 2006 - 5:44am

Odorous House Ant?

Hi. I'm not very good at IDing ants just from photos, especially from above, but your guess that these are odorous house ants sounds pretty good to me. If so, and presuming that you shot these images in MA, then they'd be Tapinoma sessile--the other two Tapinoma species found in the United States, that I'm aware of, are found much further south. Good ID markers for this genus in general are four visible gastral (abdominal) segments, the lack of a petiolar scale (best observed from the side), and a recessed anal slit (you'll have to flip a specimen over to see this!). There's also the supposed diagnostic odour, when you smash one, but I've never noticed any particularly peculiar smell about them myself.

A useful link for further IDing these ants:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hedlund/ants/GenusPages/Dolichoderinae/Genus274-long.html

… Heimchen, 27 March, 2006 - 11:56pm

there usually is no question

there usually is no question with the odor when they are crushed, though I would only have to guess the odor is that of rotten coconut, as all the text seem to describe. And when a nest is disturbed that may of been under some old plywood ...man it reeks.

Lar
--- to email, get rid of the BUGS

… Larry Fluitt, 28 March, 2006 - 12:11am