An Ant World View – Tiny Flowers

If you live in the North, you might be wishing for an ant sighting about now. The grass is brown and the trees have shed their leaves.

Well, maybe not all the trees. When I went out for a walk I noticed the African sumac, Rhus lancea, has a spread of yellow-green material beneath it. Is it pollen?

I had to check it out, of course.

The tree is flowering.

It isn’t pollen on the ground. Instead, it is a layer of dropped flowers.

What’s that bright cluster?

There’s another.

And another, each with an entrance hole in the center. There are eight or nine bright green clumps in all.

It seemed likely they are ant nests.

Can you spot it? Yes, an ant!

They look like Tetramorium or pavement ants.

 

One by one the workers carry a flower into the nest entrance and disappear.

 

The pavement ants are apparently taking advantage of a local abundance during the slow winter months. (The ant is blurry, but I thought the pollen on its head was cool.)

Seeing some ants at work in January? That is an unexpected bounty for me.

Have you ever seen Tetramorium gather flowers or other plant material?

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