Woodlouse ant
The woodlouse ant is a small, calm ant that lives in tiny families. It makes its nest in the soil, under stones or among fallen leaves. When something scary comes along, it does not fight. It pretends to be dead instead.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
To play dead, it folds in its legs and feelers and lies still.
A colony has only one queen and fewer than 100 workers. Many other ants live in much bigger families.
When the colony moves house, the ants follow the smell trail that the queen leaves behind.
The males fly surprisingly high, 5 to 20 metres above the ground, to find a mate.
When it was first described in 1802, it was put in a different group of ants called Formica.
Most asked questions about Woodlouse ant
?Where does the woodlouse ant live?
In Europe, North Africa and Asia, in nests in soil, under stones and in fallen leaves.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Myrmecina graminicola
- Named by
- Latreille, 1802
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Myrmecina graminicola (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 AntWeb.org. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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