last updated 6.May.2007

Social parasitism in ants comes in many forms.  A number of species, such as those in the Holarctic genus Polyergus, are obligate 'slave raiders' that cannot survive without the labor of the ants they enslave.  Some ants are temporary parasites, like Formica ants in the rufa species group and a few of the Lasius species. Queens of temporary social parasites start new colonies by sneaking into host nests and replacing the resident queens.  Social parasitism is apparently more rare in the tropics than in the temperate zones, for reasons that are not well understood. 

Below are images of some obligate and facultative slave-raiding species, some temporary nest-founding parasites, and some inquiline species that live within the nests of their hosts.