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Sticker of Central European bicolored ant
Bug card No. 0838 of 4,939

Central European bicolored ant

Lasius emarginatus
Eats: A bit of everythingAntsHouses and farms6 legs

The Central European bicolored ant is a small ant with two colours: a reddish middle and a brown head and tail end. At home in Europe it is quite ordinary. But it travelled to New York, where people now call it the ManhattAnt.

Lives in
Europe and western Asia, and now New York City
Length
3 to 5.5 mm (0.12 to 0.22 in)
worker ants
Top speed
about 0.31 km/h (0.19 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It eats all kinds of food, both small animals and plant food.
For real!Photo of Central European bicolored ant
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Central European bicolored ant about 5.5 mm long (0.22 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 12 seconds

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A queen can live for 30 years, but a worker ant lives at most three years.

2

In New York it lives on the higher floors of tall buildings.

3

It was first found in New York in 2011 and spreads about one mile further every year.

4

Sometimes several queens team up to start a new nest together.

you asked

Most asked questions about Central European bicolored ant

?What is the ManhattAnt?

It is the nickname for this ant in New York, where it arrived from Europe and spread quickly.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lasius emarginatus
Named by
Olivier, 1792
Group
Ants
Family
Formicidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, North America
Also known as
ManhattAnt

Where the facts come from

  1. Lasius emarginatus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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Also at home here: Houses and farms

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