Northern fungus-farming ant
Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
The northern fungus-farming ant is a little ant that grows its own food. Like its relatives, it keeps a fungus garden in its nest and eats the fungus. It lives in sandy soil in the eastern United States.
Lives in
The eastern United States, from Texas and Florida north to Illinois, Ohio and New York, in sandy soil
What does it eat?
It eats a fungus that the ants grow themselves in gardens inside their nest.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Northern fungus-farming ant about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It lives further north than any other fungus-farming ant.
2
It is the most widespread fungus-farming ant in the United States.
3
Some were reported from Mexico, but those were probably a look-alike cousin.
you asked
Most asked questions about Northern fungus-farming ant
?What does the northern fungus-farming ant eat?
A fungus that it grows itself in its nest.
?Where does the northern fungus-farming ant live?
In sandy soil in the eastern United States, from Texas and Florida to New York.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Trachymyrmex septentrionalis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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