Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: What is the most common type of ant found in North America?
The black garden ant (Lasius niger), also known as the common black ant, is a formicine ant, the type species of the subgenus Lasius, found all over Europe and in some parts of North America, South America, Australia, Asia and Australasia. The European species was split into two species; L. niger is found in open areas, while L. platythorax is found in forest habitats.[1] It is monogynous, meaning colonies have a single queen.
Formica rufa, also known as the red wood ant, southern wood ant, or horse ant, is a boreal member of the "Formica rufa" group of ants, and is the type species for that group. It is native to Europe and Anatolia but is also found in North America, in both coniferous and broad-leaf broken woodland and parkland. Workers are bicolored red and brownish-black, with a dorsal dark patch on the head and promensonotum, and are polymorphic, measuring 4.5–9 mm in length. They have large mandibles and like many other ant species they are able to spray formic acid from their abdomens as a defence. Formic acid was first extracted in 1671 by the English naturalist John Ray by distilling a large number of crushed ants of this species.
The pavement ant ("Tetramorium caespitum") is an ant native to Europe, which also occurs as an introduced pest in North America. Its common name comes from the fact that colonies in North America usually make their homes under pavement. It is distinguished by one pair of spines on the back, two nodes on the petiole, and grooves on the head and thorax.
Myrmica rubra, also known as the European fire ant or common red ant, is a species of ant of the genus "Myrmica", found all over Europe and in some parts of North America and Asia. It is mainly red in colour, with slightly darker pigmentation on the head. These ants live under stones and fallen trees, and in soil. They are aggressive, often attacking rather than running away, and are equipped with a sting, though they lack the ability to spray formic acid like the genus "Formica".
"O. bauri" usually spends its time below the leaf litter, classifying it as a leaf-litter ant. It is also widely known as a generalist predator. A few of "O. bauri"’s common prey include worms, spiders, termites, ants, butterflies, flies, and beetles. Usually prey would be around 3 mm and 4 mm in length. The most common prey "O. bauri" enjoys are soft bodied, for example, termites and wood lice. "O. bauri" is able to “exploit a food resource largely unavailable to other ants”. This was determined after a researcher found remnants of "Nasuitermes" a type of termite that as a defense will discharge material that irritates and can block the predator’s sensory organs. Finding parts of this type of termite prove that the mandibles of "O. bauri" are able to combat prey which is chemically protected.
Khan et al. reviewed evidence that despite the occurrence of a sexual phase in its life cycle, "T. gondii" has an unusual population structure dominated by three clonal lineages (Types I, II and III) that occur in North America and Europe. They estimated that a common ancestor founded these clonal lineages about 10,000 years ago. In a further and larger study (with 196 isolates from diverse sources including "T. gondii" found in the bald eagle, gray wolves, Arctic foxes and sea otters), Dubey et al. also found that "T. gondii" strains infecting North American wildlife have limited genetic diversity with the occurrence of only a few major clonal types. They found that 85% of strains in North America were of one of three widespread genotypes (Types II, III and Type 12). Thus "T. gondii" has retained the capability for sex in North America over many generations, producing largely clonal populations, and matings have generated little genetic diversity.
The banded sugar ant is one of the most widely distributed ants in Australia, but is most commonly found in south-east Australia. It occurs along the north-east coast of Queensland, from Charters Towers in the north to Brisbane in the south. The ant is widespread in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. In South Australia, it is a common household pest in Adelaide, and populations are mostly found in the south-east of the state while the species is absent in the north-west. The banded sugar ant's presence in Western Australia has yet to be verified. These ants are found in urban areas, eucalypt forests, dry sclerophyll woodland, grasslands and heaths, preferring a mesic habitat. In the drier regions of Australia, the banded sugar ant is absent and is usually replaced by "Camponotus nigriceps". Banded sugar ants have been recorded from elevations ranging from .
Ranging greatly in both size and geographic location, freshwater marshes make up the most common form of wetland in North America. They are also the most diverse of the three types of marsh. Some examples of freshwater marsh types in North America are:
Jack jumper ants live in open habitats, such as damp areas, forests, pastures, gardens and lawns, preferring fine gravel and sandy soil. Colonies can also be spotted around light bushland. Their preferred natural habitats include woodlands, dry open forests, grasslands and rural areas, and less common in urban areas. Their nests are mounds built from finely granular gravel, soil and pebbles, measuring in diameter and can be as tall as half of a metre (20 in) in height. Two types of nests for this species have been described: one being a simple nest with a noticeable shaft inside, the other being a complex structure surrounded by a mound. These ants use the warmth by decorating their nests with dry materials that heat in a quick duration, providing the nest with solar energy traps. They decorate their nests with seeds, soil, charcoal, stones, sticks, and even small invertebrate corpses. They also camouflage their nests by covering leaf litter, debris and long grass over the nest. Nests can be found hidden under rocks, where queens will most likely form their colony, or around small piles of gravel instead. Their range in southern Australia, like other regional ant species, appears like that of a relict ant. Jack jumpers have been found in dry sclerophyll forests, at elevations ranging from , averaging . Rove beetles in the genus "Heterothops" generally thrive in jack jumper nests and raise their brood within their chambers, and skinks have been found in some nests.
Populations are dense in the higher mountain regions of Tasmania. Widespread throughout the state, their presence is known on King Island, located north-west from Tasmania. The ant prefers rural areas, found in warm, dry, open eucalypt woodlands; the climate provides the ant with isolation and warmth. This environment also produces the ant's food, which includes nectar and invertebrate prey. In suburban areas, this ant is found in native vegetation, and use rockeries, cracks in concrete walls, dry dirt and grass to build nests. One study found suburbs with voluminous vegetation cover such as Mount Nelson, Fern Tree and West Hobart host jack jumper populations, while the heavily urbanised suburbs of North Hobart and Battery Point, do not.
Formica incerta is a species of ant found in eastern North America. It is the most common species of "Formica" in many areas and excavates underground nests with small entrance holes. Its diet includes nectar produced by extrafloral nectaries and honeydew which it obtains from aphids and treehoppers. It is the main host for the slave-making ant "Polyergus lucidus". "Formica incerta" was first described by the Italian entomologist Carlo Emery in 1893. Its specific name comes from the Latin "incertus" meaning "uncertain" and seems particularly apt given the subsequent uncertainty as to the validity of the species and the difficulty in distinguishing this ant from other species living in the same area.
The green-head ant is among the most widespread of all insects endemic to Australia. The ant is found throughout Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. It can be found in most areas of Western Australia but is less common in the north, and is present in the lower regions of the Northern Territory and east of Queensland. They are not present in Tasmania. The green-head ant is an introduced species to New Zealand and was first seen in 1959. Populations of the ant were probably introduced into the country on cargoes of timber; a number of other "Rhytidoponera" species were most likely introduced the same way. Populations have been established in Napier, as the ants were collected in the town between 2001 and 2003. Nests were previously found in the suburb of Penrose in Auckland and Mount Maunganui, but no specimens have been collected there since the 1960s.
Synageles venator is a species of ant-like jumping spider. It occurs in the Palearctic region and Canada, and is also found in North Africa. In Central Europe it is the most common ant-like jumping spider.
Myrmecophilus manni is a species in the family Myrmecophilidae ("ant crickets"), in the order Orthoptera ("grasshoppers, crickets, katydids"). Common names are "desert ant cricket" and "Mann's ant cricket".
"Myrmecophilus manni" is found in North America.
Polistes apachus is a social wasp native to western North America. It is commonly referred to as the "apache wasp" and is the most common "Polistes "species found in California. "P. apachus "establishes itself in vines and orchards, but can also be found in more urban areas. It is a type of paper wasp, which is the common name for a type of wasp that uses a papery material to construct its nests.
"Paraponera" is distributed throughout Central and South America, commonly found in the wet neotropic ecozone. These ants are found in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica from the north, and in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil from the south. Colonies are found in lowland areas, at elevations ranging from sea level to 750 m (2,460 ft). However, specimens have been collected at elevations of 1,500 m (4,920 ft) in Parque La Amistad.
Colonies consist of several hundred individuals and are usually situated at the bases of trees. Workers forage arboreally in the area directly above the nest for small arthropods and nectar, often as far as the upper canopy; little foraging occurs on the forest floor. Nectar, carried between the mandibles, is the most common food taken back to the nest by foragers. Two studies in Costa Rica and on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) found about four bullet ant nests per hectare of forest. On BCI, the nests were found under 70 species of trees, six species of shrubs, two species of lianas, and one species of palm. Nests were most common beneath the canopies of "Faramea occidentalis" and "Trichilia tuberculata", but these trees are also the most abundant in the forest. Nests were present more frequently than would be expected based on the abundance of the trees under "Alseis blackiana", "Tabernaemontana arborea", "Virola sebifera", "Guarea guidonia", and "Oenocarpus mapora". The large number of nest plants suggests little active selection of nest sites by bullet ants. Small shrubs, however, are underused, probably because they do not provide access to the forest canopy. The study on BCI concluded trees with buttresses and extrafloral nectaries may be selected for by bullet ants.
The subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae was established by M.R. Smith in 1952, which represents three genera of ants that are primarily arboreal nesting ants in the tropical and subtropical regions. They are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, North America and South America.
Lasius neoniger, also known as the turfgrass ant, Labour day ant, cornfield ant or nuisance ant, is a species of ant in the genus "Lasius". Found in North America, the species is common in the eastern United States and Canada, though they can be found all over the continent. They are usually light brown in color, with a slightly darker head.
The yellow meadow ant, (also yellow hill ant, formal name "Lasius flavus"), is one of the most common ants in Central Europe, and it also occurs in Asia and North Africa, but populations in North America are a different, related species ("Lasius brevicornis").
The most common type of car in the GATX North American fleet is the tank car; other major car types include covered hoppers, open-top hoppers, and gondolas. GATX invests in nearly every type of railcar operated in North America. In Europe, tank cars also make up GATX's largest fleet, but unlike in North America, GATX's European fleet includes substantial quantities of intermodal cars which are owned in a GATX joint venture called AAE Cargo. In contrast, GATX's North American intermodal car fleet is relatively small. This is true of most North American operating lessors; historically the bulk of the industry's intermodal investment has been made by TTX Corporation, which is jointly owned by North America's Class I railroads.
Facultative mutualism is a type of relationship where the survival of both parties (plant and ants, in this instance), is not dependent upon the interaction. Both organisms can survive without the other species. Facultative mutualisms most often occur in plants that have extrafloral nectaries but no other specialized structures for the ants. These non-exclusive nectaries allow a variety of animal species to interact with the plant. Facultative relationships can also develop between non-native plant and ant species, where co-evolution has not occurred. For example, Old World legumes that were introduced to North America can be protected by ants that originated from a different region.
Kansas ant species include common ants and ones with wings. Some Kansas ants create mounds that are a common sight - "Pogonomyrmex occidentalis", "Formica subsericea", "Formica montana", and "Formica planipilis".
Ants of the subfamily Dolichoderinae are frequently found in Kansas. Dolichoderinae ants may be the only ants that can survive in Kansas' harsher environments.
Ants of the former subfamily Ecitoninae (now Dorylinae) mostly go unnoticed in Kansas because they can not tolerate direct sunlight. "Neivamyrmex nigrescens" and "Neivamyrmex opacithorax" are the most commonly found ants of this rarely seen subfamily.
"T. lubei" is related to fossil giant ants previously found in Germany and in the Isle of Wight in southern England dating from the same period. It is the first complete giant ant fossil from North America; previous evidence that big ants lived in North America during the Eocene included an ancient ant wing from Tennessee. It is a further example, in the northern temperate regions, of tropical fauna and flora such as hippopotamus precursors, tropical plankton and pollen from tropical palms. "T. lubei" supports the idea that during the Eocene (), conditions such as land bridges and hot spells existed which permitted the spread of ancient warmth-loving insects and other forms of life from Europe to North America or vice versa, which would not have occurred had the temperature been uniformly cool throughout.
In obligate mutualisms, both of the organisms involved are interdependent; they cannot survive on their own. An example of this type of mutualism can be found in the plant genus "Macaranga". All species of this genus provide food for ants in various forms, but only the obligate species produce domatia. Some of the most common species of myrmecophytic "Macaranga" interact with ants in the genus "Crematogaster". "C. borneensis" have been found to be completely dependent on its partner plant, not being able to survive without the provided nesting spaces and food bodies. In laboratory tests, the worker ants did not survive away from the plants, and in their natural habitat they were never found anywhere else.
Formica pallidefulva is a species of ant found in North America. It is a red to dark brown ant with a shiny body and varies in shade across its range. Colonies of this ant are found in a variety of habitats where they excavate underground nests with galleries and chambers. In some parts of its range, the nests may be raided by slave-making ants, most notably "Formica pergandei" and "Polyergus montivagus".
Myrmecocystus mexicanus is a species of ant in the genus "Myrmecocystus", which is one of the six genera that bear the common name "honey ant" or "honeypot ant", due to curious behavior where some of the workers will swell with liquid food until they become immobile and hang from the ceilings of nest chambers, acting as living food storage for the colony. Honey ants are found in North America, Australia, and Africa. Ant species belonging to the "Myrmecocystus" genus reside in North America. "M. mexicanus" in particular is found in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico.