Friday, July 25, 2008

Urban Wildlife Watch: Winged Ants

The other day, I was swatting away in the kitchen at flies. For some reason, flies have been getting into my house - big flies...and some small ones. But one fly looked a little different. After I swatted in dead and it landed in the tub, I realized, this is no fly...It's an ant.









Yes, some ants are winged, but only the reproductively active ones - in other words Queens and males. This isn't my picture. Regrettably, I don't have a macro lens on the digital camera (bummer). But this is what it looked like. What distinguishes a winged ant from a fly is its body shape. The ant's body is overall much thinner than a fly. And unlike most flies, the ant doesn't have any of that iridescent coloring on its head. And it you look very closely, the ant has that characteristic thin waste and fat abdomen with a stinger. It looks a lot like a tiny wasp. That's because Wasps and Ants are in the same insect family - Hymenoptera.



Keep your eyes open very wide and look closely and you too might be able to spot a rare Winged Ant.

4 comments:

Samia said...

Beautiful photos. Your blog is wonderful!

Anonymous said...

i have them everywhere in the basement no matter how much i kill it always come bak T.T and i hate bugs any kind of bugs!!!!

Marissa Bozarth said...

Gahhh. They aren't rare to me, or to where I live. We have them all over and they get really big, and they hiss. :/

Free Documentaries said...

great photos , impresionate

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