73 UK Ant Species

[Wood~Ant]

I have been researching the BWARS site and a few others. BWARS site here

They currently list no less than 73 ant species here in Britain which are listed below}

British Ant Species

ANERGATES atratulus

APHAENOGASTER subterranea

CARDIOCONDYLA britteni

CREMATOGASTER scutellaris

FORMICA aquilonia
FORMICA cunicularia
FORMICA exsecta
FORMICA fusca
FORMICA lemani
FORMICA lugubris
FORMICA picea
FORMICA pratensis
FORMICA rufa
FORMICA rufibarbis
FORMICA sanguinea

FORMICOXENUS nitidulus

HYPOPONERA punctatissima

Lasius alienus s.l.
Lasius alienus s.s.
Lasius brunneus
Lasius emarginatus
Lasius flavus
Lasius fuliginosus
Lasius meridionalis
Lasius mixtus
Lasius neglectus
Lasius niger s.l.
Lasius niger s.s.
Lasius platythorax
Lasius psammophilus
Lasius sabularum
Lasius umbratus

LEPTOTHORAX acervorum

LINEPITHEMA humile
LINEPITHEMA iniquinum

MONOMORIUM floricola
MONOMORIUM pharaonis

MYRMECINA graminicola

MYRMICA hirsuta
MYRMICA karavajevi
MYRMICA lobicornis
MYRMICA lonae
MYRMICA rubra
MYRMICA ruginodis
MYRMICA sabuleti
MYRMICA scabrinodis
MYRMICA schencki
MYRMICA specioides
MYRMICA sulcinodis
MYRMICA vandeli

PARATRECHINA longicornis

PHEIDOLE megacephala

PLAGIOLEPIS sp
PLAGIOLEPIS taurica

PONERA coarctata
PONERA testacea

SOLENOPSIS fugax

STENAMMA debile
STENAMMA westwoodii s.l.
STENAMMA westwoodii s.s.

STRONGYLOGNATHUS testaceus

TAPINOMA erraticum s.l.
TAPINOMA erraticum s.s.
TAPINOMA madeirense
TAPINOMA melanocephalum

TEMNOTHORAX albipennis
TEMNOTHORAX interruptus
TEMNOTHORAX nylanderi
TEMNOTHORAX unifasciatus

TETRAMORIUM bicarinatum
TETRAMORIUM caespitum
TETRAMORIUM caldarium
TETRAMORIUM simillimum

While there were only 56 species back in 1977 listed in the UK, there seems to be a lack of evidence to prove that a total of 73 ant species now reside in the British Isles, unless you include Guernsey and Jersey (Channel Islands) of course.

Many of the ants listed above would find our cold wet winters very hard on them, as a species such as Crematogaster scutellaris comes from much warmer regions than we find in Britain, so I advise members to take this list with a pinch of salt, as I doubt its accuracy.

[deansyme]

I would love to know where they all are lol

[Wood~Ant]

Jun 24, 2012 8:28:12 GMT deansyme said:

I would love to know where they all are lol

Actually the best place to find the most abundance of ant species in the UK is the county of Dorset, with Hampshire coming a close second. Notice something?
Yep, the south coast of England has the biggest concentration of ant species.

[honeypotant]

Jun 24, 2012 8:28:12 GMT deansyme said:

I would love to know where they all are lol

me too. never heard of half of them, so woudn't know where to look

[adam15]

My friend was saying yesterday if the weather stays good we should go out of London for a day or two. Dorset it is!

[Welsh Ant]

If this list is right, how come most of us only find about 7 species at best. the site says 73 species are living in the Uk, but they don't say where, do they

[batspiderfish]

Jun 24, 2012 14:06:53 GMT Welsh Ant said:

If this list is right, how come most of us only find about 7 species at best. the site says 73 species are living in the Uk, but they don't say where, do they

You have to look hard and carefully in order to find more than seven. For one thing, make sure you absolutely know the identity of the ants that you can find. Do you think you can tell Lasius niger from Lasius psammophilus or Lasius alienus? Lasius flavus from Lasius umbratus? Then there are cryptic ants like Stenamma and Ponera which are difficult to find because of their habits. There are more than seven species of ant anywhere in the UK.

[Wood~Ant]

Jun 25, 2012 1:03:23 GMT batspiderfish said:

There are more than seven species of ant anywhere in the UK.

Not really correct I'm afraid, as parts of northern Scotland are restricted to no more than 7 species, with only 4 or 5 actually found in abundance. I am referring to the upper highlands here, as very few ant species can exist on the mountains.

You would be hard pressed to find more than 4 ant species from Thurso, Wick and up to John O'Groats, as even Lasius niger isn't local there; and only 3 Myrmica species and good old Formica lemani are found around that part of the UK.

[bobdol]

I think you have to take this list with a pinch of salt. A lot of the species listed for the UK by BWARS have been seen only a few times in the UK and can not actually survive in our country but come by container etc. and inhabit buildings and warmer urban areas (eg. Plagiolepsis, Ponera, Crematogaster, Pheidole, Monomorium).

Half of the Formica species listed are very rare now due to habitat loss and most of the Lasius species are very, very similar looking. When we identify yellow ants instinctively as Lasius flavus they could in fact be L. meridionalis, L. mixtus, L. umbratus or L. sabularum which all look the identical to L. flavus.

Myrmica is another example with all the species being so similar - people constantly identify Myrmica species as Myrmica rubra simply because this is the most well known name.

I have only identified 7 species in my area for sure but there are most definitely more which just look identical to the ones I have seen. So 7 different looking ants is about right to find however there is more species diversity than that.

[batspiderfish]

True that you'll expect to find less diversity in Scotland, albeit a place in general which seems to be a nice sanctuary for several species of Formica. In the mountains and the far north, even fewer species are likely to be found. But I think that in the general scheme of things, most of the members on this forum should be able to locate more than seven species, or at least identify more than seven species. I'm familiar with people from the most species-rich areas of the UK which can only find about seven, so I tend to think it's more a matter of not looking hard enough than an absence. Seven is definitely about how many local ants I had believed to exist when I was starting out.