vayda on Nostr: 🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨 Argentine ants, also known as Linepithema humile, are ...
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Argentine ants, also known as Linepithema humile, are very ordinary-looking, light to dark brown ants. They are slender looking, 2.6 to [3.2mm](http://3.2mm ) long insects.
Notably, argentine ants are a species of the suburbs that belong to the family of Dolichoderinae. These ants originated from South America but now have spread to the USA, South Africa, and Europe.
Argentine ants are very efficient foragers that follow regular trails when searching for food, and winged queens can sometimes be found among trailing workers. Unlike most ants, who only deposit pheromone trails on their way back to the nest from a food source, Argentine ants will deposit pheromone trails both to and from a food source. This behavior ensures they do not waste time revisiting the same area for food.
Argentine ant colonies can contain hundreds of queens. For every 1,000 worker ants, it’s estimated there can be up to 15 queens. Unlike some other ant species that establish new nests through swarming, Argentine ants reproduce through a process known as budding where queens and males will mate within the parent nest before leaving with a handful of workers to start a new nest. These networks of interconnected nests can expand to form massive colonies called supercolonies that can contain millions of members, including multiple queens, and have been known to populate entire city blocks.
Argentine ants, also known as Linepithema humile, are very ordinary-looking, light to dark brown ants. They are slender looking, 2.6 to [3.2mm](http://3.2mm ) long insects.
Notably, argentine ants are a species of the suburbs that belong to the family of Dolichoderinae. These ants originated from South America but now have spread to the USA, South Africa, and Europe.
Argentine ants are very efficient foragers that follow regular trails when searching for food, and winged queens can sometimes be found among trailing workers. Unlike most ants, who only deposit pheromone trails on their way back to the nest from a food source, Argentine ants will deposit pheromone trails both to and from a food source. This behavior ensures they do not waste time revisiting the same area for food.
Argentine ant colonies can contain hundreds of queens. For every 1,000 worker ants, it’s estimated there can be up to 15 queens. Unlike some other ant species that establish new nests through swarming, Argentine ants reproduce through a process known as budding where queens and males will mate within the parent nest before leaving with a handful of workers to start a new nest. These networks of interconnected nests can expand to form massive colonies called supercolonies that can contain millions of members, including multiple queens, and have been known to populate entire city blocks.