Nylanderia parvula

Urbana, Illinois, USA
Raspberry flowers provide nectar to attract flighted pollinators like bees and flies, but ants sometimes sneak in to steal the bounty. (Nylanderia bourbonica)

Orlando, Florida, USA
Raspberry flowers provide nectar to attract flighted pollinators like bees and flies, but ants sometimes sneak in to steal the bounty. (Nylanderia bourbonica)

Orlando, Florida, USA
A nest of Nylanderia querna in the leaf litter, hidden away in a rotting acorn. The winged individuals are males.

Dixon Springs, Illinois, USA
Paratrechina longicornis - black crazy ant.  Along a sun-soaked beach on a Panamanian island, ants drink from nectaries on the underside of a leaf.  Many plants attract ants with nectaries, and the ants in return help remove the plant's herbivorous pests.

Isla Contadora, Panama
Paratrechina longicornis - black crazy ant.  Along a sun-soaked beach on a Panamanian island, ants drink from nectaries on the underside of a leaf.  Many plants attract ants with nectaries, and the ants in return help remove the plant's herbivorous pests.

Isla Contadora, Panama
Paratrechina longicornis nestmate workers, their social stomachs engorged with sugar water.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
Paratrechina longicornis crazy ants scavenging a trap-jaw ant carcass.  Paratrechina group-transport their food, a rapid method, allowing them to secure resources before slower but more aggressive competing species.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
Paratrechina longicornis nestmate workers, their social stomachs engorged with sugar water.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
Paratrechina longicornis crazy ants scavenging a trap-jaw ant carcass. Paratrechina group-transport their food, a rapid method, allowing them to secure resources before slower but more aggressive competing species.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
Paratrechina longicornis crazy ants scavenging a trap-jaw ant carcass.  Paratrechina group-transport their food, a rapid method, allowing them to secure resources before slower but more aggressive competing species.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
Paratrechina longicornis crazy ants scavenging a trap-jaw ant carcass. Paratrechina group-transport their food, a rapid method, allowing them to secure resources before slower but more aggressive competing species.

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA
See photo in original gallery.
all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013