myrmecos.net

Formica subintegra and Formica subsericea
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

photograph © Alex Wild 2003

Formica subintegra (top) is a social parasite of the black field ant, F. subsericea (bottom). 
F. subintegra workers periodically raid colonies of F. subsericea for their brood, which matures into ants that perform much of the labor in their captors' nest. Such "slave-raiding" behavior is common in North American and Eurasian Formica.


This image is copyrighted by the photographer and cannot be used without permission. To obtain permission to use this image, please email Alex Wild. (alwild (at) myrmecos.net).  Most of the photographs on myrmecos.net are reduced from their original size and compressed for more efficient web transmission.  In some cases, higher quality versions are available.

This image was captured with a Canon EOS D60, with a Canon 65/2.8 MPE 1-5x Macro lens.