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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Ants (Formicoidea) » Ants (Formicidae) » Formicinae » Formicini » Wood ants, mound ants, & field ants (Formica) » rufa group (Formica rufa group) » Thatching ant (Formica obscuripes)
Photo#265064
ants in SE South Dakota prairie remnant - Formica obscuripes
Copyright © 2009 Mark Wetmore

ants in SE South Dakota prairie remnant - Formica obscuripes
Vermillion, South Dakota, Clay County, South Dakota, USA
April 10, 2009
Size: 5/16 to 3/8 inch long
From a large ant hill, almost a yard wide by two feet tall, at Spirit Mound Historic Prairie in SE South Dakota, near Vermillion. They were very active on a hazy, 50 degree afternoon. The white background is a nearby snow patch the ant was traveling across. Is this a prairie species?

The third photo, taken at the same mound the previous day, April 9, '09, was added to help with identification. Is this Formica obscruipes? Shown from Minnesota here: http://www.acad.carleton.edu/curricular/BIOL/resources/ant/Fobscuripes.html?

There is a literature citation at the end of a recent paper on prairie ant colony longevity: Weber, 1935, "The Biology of the Thatching Ant, Formica rufa obscruipes Forel, in North Dakota." Thatching ant certainly fits the mound these guys have built. http://www.hindawi.com/GetPDF.aspx?doi=10.1155/1989/51654

There may be two spellings for the same species name. This AntWeb entry seem to be describing the same ant, but spells it 'obscuripes.' http://www.antweb.org/description.do?rank=species&genus=formica&name=obscuripes

Images of this individual: tag all
ants in SE South Dakota prairie remnant - Formica obscuripes ants in SE South Dakota prairie remnant - Formica obscuripes ants in SE South Dakota prairie remnant - Formica obscuripes
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Contributed by Mark Wetmore on 10 April, 2009 - 9:08pm
Last updated 5 May, 2009 - 9:08pm

Not necessarily prairie
These ants are also found in 2nd growth coniferous forests, disturbed roadsides and forest habitats which receive more light, in my experience. As a note to Trager's response (quite a while ago), there are some interesting variations of F. obscuripes around, at least on the west coast. Dr. Longino and I know of a large montane population of this species which, from quite distinct characters, may be a seperate species, but according to the old quadrinomial system, would merit "variety" if not -the trinomial-"subspecies" status. This specimen does indeed conform to the standard obscuripes gestalt.
… Brendon E. Boudinot, 1 January, 2011 - 10:38pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Formica.
… Mark Wetmore, 5 May, 2009 - 9:08pm login or register to post comments

Just a guess...
...but Formica exsectoides is a bicolored, mound-building ant that lives as close to your location as central Iowa, check out http://bugguide.net/node/view/50761/bgimage. Wait for an expert to be sure; I know just enough to be dangerous.

Neat photo!
… John Pearson, 12 April, 2009 - 4:33pm login or register to post comments

 
F. obscuripes
In a note posted on the Iowa Insects Mailing List today, James Trager comments, "I’m not sure because the pictures don’t show the hair pattern well enough, but my sense is they are F. obscuripes."
… John Pearson, 20 April, 2009 - 12:50pm login or register to post comments

 
Formica obscuripes
Formica obscuripes is the correct name for this critter. As was common in the old days, this species and virtually all its closer relatives in North America were originally described as a subspecies, or the defunct category of variety, of the European F. rufa. W.F.Buren, a myrmecologist from Iowa, was among the first to dispense with the variety and to recognize the American forms as distinct from the European species, in his publication on Iowa ants in 1944. Later, W.S.Creighton codified this and many other taxonomic changes like it in his "Ants of North America" (1950).
… James C. Trager, 29 April, 2009 - 9:17am login or register to post comments

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