The New Digs

Our yard here in Champaign is about the size of a postage stamp, but it is in an older part of town and the ant fauna isnât half bad. In moving up from Tucson Iâve traded my desert harvester ants for a more midwestern fauna. Hereâs what I uncovered yesterday in a few minutes of looking around:

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Camponotus nearcticus

Lasius neoniger

Formica pallidefulva group sp.

Paratrechina sp.

Tapinoma sessile

Myrmecina americana

Tetramorium âsp. Eâ

Ponera pennsylvanica

As a rule of thumb, older parts of town are better for ant diversity than newer developments. Iâve found this pattern nearly everywhere Iâve lived. The initial disturbance to put in development is severe: removal of trees, bulldozing, paving, seeding with dense turfgrass. Ant communities can take decades to rebuild, and they typically have to do it in the face of the pesty introduced species that thrive in new developments.

There are other reasons live in older neighborhoods, of course. Better architecture, for one. But I like the richness of a more mature ecological community.

More like this

Alex

it all double dutch to me it scientific names errrrr

By Jack jumper (not verified) on 10 Aug 2008 #permalink

Agreed, new developments are ecologically sterile. Glad to hear you're flourishing in your new home. I'm sure the desert will miss you.

That is probably F. pallidefulva itself, though I've seen F. incerta in one Bloomington neighborhood-- where there weren't many trees.

I'll be interested to learn which Paratrechina you have?

Ahem! - Myrmicina?

By James C. Trager (not verified) on 12 Aug 2008 #permalink

At some point I'll have to stick all of these under the scope to confirm the ID. Thanks for the spelling correction, James.

After writing that first list, I've since seen Solenopsis molesta and Temnothorax curvispinosus.