Please note that many different insects produce
venoms in various forms and toxicities. Although most humans may not be
seriously affected by most insect venoms, YOU may be sensitive or even allergic. A severe allergic reaction
to the smallest bite can be life-threatening. Therefore, you should exercise care
whenever handling "harmless" or unknown insects, and exercise extreme care when
dealing with those whose venom is known to be potent.
A binomial ("bi" = two, "nomial" = name)
consists of Genus & species and forms the basis for any
taxonomical (classification of living organisms) system
(including plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, viruses, and
protists). If the first part of the name matches in any two
plants, they are closely related (same Genus). If the second part
of any two plant names match it only means they share that
characteristic, it does not mean they are the same species or
even distantly related.
The taxonomy of plants on this page is displayed in the following
way:
All Ants are Order HYMENOPTERA - Family
FORMICIDAE -
Common name [Genus species] other names (spp. indicates many
species)
OVERVIEW OF ANTS OF THE CERRILLOS AREA
Thanks to Linda Wiener and the
Santa Fe Botanical Garden for much of the following information.
The ants you typically see are in the worker caste. These ants
are all sterile females and do the work of gathering food, caring for young, and
cleaning the nests. Some species of ants have only one caste of worker ants, but
others have many specialized castes which can be distinguished from each other by
size or by specialized anatomy. Many species have soldier ants with large heads
and jaws, whose specialty is defending the nest. You can test for the presence of
soldier ants by stomping hard on the ground near the nest. If they are there,
they will usually come rushing out to defend the nest. Some ants have workers who
are specialized foragers, brood care workers, food storage receptacles, seed husk
crushers, and many other functions.
For most of the year, ant colonies consist only of sterile workers and
one or more queens who do all the reproduction for the nest. Once per year, each
mature nest will produce winged, fertile queens and kings who fly around and mate.
The males die right after this nuptial flight, and the now mated females shake off
their wings and attempt to start a new nest. At first, the new queen must do all
the work, preparing the nest area, laying eggs, gathering food to feed to the larvae
(which look like little grains of rice), and defending the nest. This first brood
of young form pupae and then emerge as adult ants, ready to forage, defend the nest,
care for the young, and to care for the queen (who never works again).
The queen may live (depending on species) for up to 15 years or so and lay millions
of eggs. The queen stores the sperm from her nuptial flight in a special organ called
a spermatheca. She is able to control the fertilization of her eggs. In ants, a
fertilized egg turns into a female and a nonfertilized egg turns into a male.
This is unlike humans and most other insects in which sex chromosomes control the
sex of each individual. The amount of food a female larva is given generally
determines whether she will mature into a sterile worker or a fertile queen.
These are called acrobat ants because of the distinctive way
they wave their abdomens over their heads when disturbed. Two species have been
identified. One is a rather large, robust ant with a bright red head and thorax
and velvety black abdomen, and may be C. depilis. The
second is smaller, slender, and all black, probably C. cerasi.
This genus is easily identified by their heart shaped abdomens (when viewed from
above).
This is a species of native army ants. Unlike their infamous
cousins in the Tropical Americas, which are famed for eating everything they catch,
these only attack the nests of other ant species. This group is easily identified
because they have no eyes (or very tiny eyes).
This is the common red and black carpenter ant that nests
under rocks and stones.
Another unusual species of carpenter ant, C. ocreatus,
which does not nest in wood, has been identified. It is large (11 mm), with a
black head, bright red thorax, and black abdomen.
This ant is related to the dreadsd and destructive red imported
fire ant, but is not known to do the same sort of damage to habitat and other
species. It is a very tiny red ant.
The nests of this ant are often associated with the nests of
harvester ants [see below]. They may steal food from the very much larger harvester
ant foragers.
These 2+ mm ants prefer warm, dry climates. They are the first ants to become
active in the late afternoon during the summer, when they feed on tiny insects,
pollen and nectar robbed from flowers such as spurge; Euphorbia
spp.
This is the genus of harvester ants. Four species have been
identified, P. occidentalis, P. barbatus, P. imberbiculus
and P. rugosus. All of them collect and store seeds, which
are their major or only food. Seeds are stored underground in large granaries.
The ants put a special substance on the seeds which prevents them from sprouting.
When a nest dies or is abandoned, the remaining seeds will start to sprout.
Harvester ants are somewhat infamous for their painful stings, which some people
react to very strongly.
Their nests are conspicuous because they are covered with small stones and often
the ants clear large areas around the entrances. The large, cone shaped nests
belong to P. occidentalis. Flat nests with stones around
the entrance belong to P. barbatus (red ants) or
P. rugosus (darker ants).
Their nests are also famous for being good collecting spots for tiny turquoise
flakes and fossil rodent bones, both of which are placed around the nest entrances.
P. imberbiculusare found living under rocks or trunks.
A small species which nests in the ground. Workers tend
aphids, collecting the sweet "honeydew" they secrete and in turn protecting the
aphids from predators and moving them to new plants when the plants they are
feeding on dry up.
The honey pot ants have a peculiar caste whose members do
nothing but hang from the ceiling of the nest by their mouth parts and serve as
storage receptacles for liquids brought in by forager ants. If food becomes scarce,
these "repletes" regurgitate food for their nestmates.
It is recorded that people have eaten the repletes as sweet treats, the
ant being held by her head and thorax, and the abdomen bitten off.
William P. Blake's journal entry August 20, 1857, while
visiting the town of Dolores in the Ortiz Mountains:
"Curious honey ants - ants with their abdomens enlarged with a [illegible] or
capsule one quarter of an inch in diameter, bladder like and filled with liquid
amber-like honey."
The common name is pyramid ant, because of a small pyramidal
projection on the thorax. These ants are common all over the area. They build
small mounds of fine soil with a hole in the center.
This website is maintained by the Cerrillos
Hills Park Coalition
and is dedicated to the creation, enhancement and stewardship
of an historical, recreational, and cultural open space in
the
Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA
