Wood Ants quiz

More questions about Wood Ants

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1. 1 Easy

   What two colors are most commonly seen on a wood ant?

   Answer: Red and black

   Why: Head and thorax are rusty red and the gaster brownish black; Formica rufa is hairy, while its lookalike F. polyctena is almost hairless.

2. 2 Medium

   Approximately how many times their own body weight can wood ants lift?

   Answer: 40 times

   Why: A load test clocked one 8.9 mg wood ant moving 352.9 mg, about 40 times its weight; free in the jaws, loads run nearer ten times.

3. 3 Hard

   Which beetle mimics pheromones to live in wood ant nests?

   Answer: Lomechusa strumosa

   Why: Ants grip its tufts of hair, called trichomes, and carry the beetle into the nest, where they feed it mouth to mouth like their own brood.

4. 4 Easy

   How many legs does a wood ant have?

   Answer: six

   Why: Six legs mark it as an insect; wood ants march them along scent trails that can run 100 metres from the mound.

5. 5 Medium

   How many queens does a multi-queen wood ant nest usually have?

   Answer: hundreds

   Why: A big wood ant mound can hold 100,000 to 400,000 workers, and Formica polyctena colonies can have 1,000 queens or more.

6. 6 Hard

   What keeps wood ants the top predators in pine canopies?

   Answer: Aggressive territorial exclusion

   Why: Red wood ants sit atop a three tier ant hierarchy as territorials, and they defend their ground with sprayed formic acid rather than a sting.