The ants for your ant farm (supplied after you have bought
it so that live ants don't have to sit around on the
shelves for months on end) will probably be harvester ants.
Probably from the genus Pogonomyrmex. There are many
individual Pogonomyrmex species in North America and they
are usually seed eaters.
If you know any Latin, you might recognise that Pogon means
'bearded' so, literally Pogonomyrmex means 'bearded ant'.
It refers to the small whiskers that appear on the
underside of the head in some species. If you get the right
species, you might be lucky enough to see these with a
strong magnifying glass.
Harvester ants are typically species of dry and arid areas
and are therefore more common in the western states than in
the eastern. The most common species are P. occidentalis,
the western harvester and P. barbatus, the red harvester
and these are found in the mid west. Some species, notably
the California harvester, P. Californicus and P.
magnacanthus, can tolerate much higher temperatures and can
be found foraging for seeds at 130oF. They can be found in
Death Valley and the Mojave Desert.
Nest building The type of nest constructed by an ant colony
depends very much on the species and some species are able
to exploit a much wider variety of soils or habitat types
than others. The red harvester prefers loamy soils and
actually avoids pure sand although other species, such as
the Florida harvester actually requires it to build a nest.
As the name, harvester, implies many of these ant species
are country dwellers. Some, such as the western harvester,
however will venture into cities and can be seen tunnelling
under paving stones and the like.
Some species tunnel directly into flat soil whereas others
may choose vertical faces in which to burrow. This
behaviour makes it easy to dispose of waste tunnelling
material. Others will choose rocks or boulders under which
to build. Presumably, if large enough, such a rock would
provide protection from large ant-eating animals. Usually
nests are built below ground but sometimes they can extend
upwards into a dome structure which may be as much as three
feet high. In a natural setting the nest comprises a highly
complicated network of tunnels and chambers of many
different sizes and types. Tunnels may be up to half an
inch wide and chambers may be six inches long. In the brood
chambers of some excavated nests, flowers and other
vegetable material has been found. It is believed that this
is for humidity control rather than any aesthetic purpose!
In an ant farm, particularly where the structure of the
farm restricts digging to two dimensions, the tunnel
arrangement will be much simpler but you should still be
lucky enough to see chambers being constructed as these are
a common feature of all nests.
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There's an awful lot more to learn about these fascinating
creatures so discover the world of ants and ant farms and
how to look after them at http://www.antfarmcentral.com
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