ants - Tetramorium immigrans

Moved

Moved from Ants.

… James C. Trager, 24 October, 2016 - 7:20am

Moved

… Charley Eiseman, 21 October, 2016 - 2:38pm

Ants

Based on careful identification of their food source, Snackcracker cheezitii, aka common Cheez-It(R) (Green & Green, 1921), whose dimensions are "Approximately 26 by 24 mm (1.0 by 0.95 inch)" (Wikipedia), I would say that these are small, hungry ants. ;)

...Possibly Tapinoma sessile, the odorous house ant, or Prenolepis imparis, the false honey ant.

These ants have some distinctive anatomical features listed on their respective BugGuide pages. Here's a quick guide to ant anatomy from "Ask a Biologist" at Arizona State University that could help if you take a closer look.

Here's an odorous house ant:

Here's a false honey ant:

… MosquitoBait, 8 October, 2016 - 4:29pm

Cheez-it ants

Very helpful - thanks! We are cataloguing the biodiversity at our school, so any id help is appreciated. The large, square heads are more likely to indicate role rather than species?

… Jemicy School, 8 October, 2016 - 4:51pm

Biodiversity project

Hope you didn't mind the nerd humor there... :) I was remiss not to include the pavement ant -- seen here with a close relative of the Cheez-It(R) -- as another possibility:

The size and shape of a given ant's head reflects a combination of both its species (which is adapted to a particular ecological niche, food source, nesting spot, etc.) and the role of that ant within its colony (aka its "caste").

Alas, beyond that, I'm afraid my limited ant knowledge is tapped out, so I can't provide a solid ID for you, but the biodiversity project sounds cool!

P.S. I know of Jemicy; used to tutor for DTP in Balto.

… MosquitoBait, 8 October, 2016 - 5:46pm