A pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) after feeding on chocolate croissant crumbs. Pharaoh ants are omnivorous and feed on various sources of fat, protein, and carbohydrate. Since they also actively prey on small insects, in May 1931 a colony has been successfully introduced to exterminate bed bugs in British barracks in Gibraltar.
Category: Icelandic ants
Ant worker carrying a larva out of the nest
The entrance of an ant nest can be very busy in these warm Icelandic summer days.
Workers are tirelessly walking in and outside the nest: foragers that leave the nest to look for food and then come back a few minutes later with food in their mandibles.
At the end of the video, we can also see a worker carrying a larva. Since many Lasius sp. may exhibit weak polydomy (the same colony can occupy two or more separated nests), this ant is presumably moving the larva from that nest to the next one, a few centimeters far.
Ants in Reykjavík
Ants are not common in Reykjavik thought they can be found here. A recent project aims to document and locate ants around the Icelandic capital in the summer of 2020. Working on the project are Marco Mancini, a master student and Andreas Guðmundsson under the oversight of Arnar Pálsson, a professor in biology and Mariana Tamayo.