Western velvety tree ant
The western velvety tree ant lives in oak and pine forests of the western United States. People often mix it up with carpenter ants, because it also digs into wood. Its colonies can be huge, with tens of thousands of workers.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
One colony can have 40,000 to 60,000 workers.
Its food trails can stretch 60 metres or more from the nest.
It often travels in tiny tunnels just 1 to 2 centimetres under the ground or under fallen leaves.
It is the most common ant in the oak and pine forests of the southwestern United States.
It nests in tree cracks, in the soil and under the bark of dead trees.
Most asked questions about Western velvety tree ant
?Is the velvety tree ant a carpenter ant?
No, but people often confuse them because both dig into wood.
?What does the velvety tree ant eat?
It eats insects and also collects sweet honeydew from small sap-sucking bugs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Liometopum occidentale
- Named by
- Emery, 1895
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Velvety tree ant
Where the facts come from
- Liometopum occidentale (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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