Iberian harvester ant
The Iberian harvester ant is a reddish brown ant that collects seeds, like a tiny farmer bringing in the harvest. It lives in dry open places with scrub and grass. It has quite small eyes.
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Fun facts
Its queen is about 9 to 10 millimetres long, bigger than the workers.
The queen can lay eggs that hatch into males of a different ant species.
She needs those other ant males, because only with them can she get worker ants.
Scientists invented a new word, xenoparity, to describe this strange trick.
Most asked questions about Iberian harvester ant
?What does the Iberian harvester ant eat?
Seeds, which it collects and carries back to its nest.
?How big is the Iberian harvester ant?
Workers are 4 to 9 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Messor ibericus
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Messor ibericus (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 Will Ericson. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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