th15IH

Meet the Winnow Ant
Aphaenogaster rudis sounds more like an unsavory medical
condition than one of the coolest ant species in North America. It
doesn’t roll off the tongue like “sugar ant,” “carpenter ant,”
“pavement ant” or, “fire ant.” So, for the purposes of familiarizing
you with one of the best residents on your block, we’ll give
Aphaenogaster rudis a nickname: the winnow ant.
Winnow ants are among the most elegant-looking ants around
the forest and in your backyard. With their long legs and slender
reddish-brown bodies, they pick their paths delicately across the
ground like rusty ballerinas. Each medium-to-large worker
measuring at about 0.15 inch can just cover the date on a quarter.
Although they prefer to nest in decomposing stumps and logs,
winnow ants can make the best out of any situation, building their
homes in open soil, beneath rocks, and even in human garbage.
With one queen and up to 2,000 workers, a winnow ant colony
could easily pack a stadium for an ant rock concert.
Urban Life
Where it lives: Winnow ants prefer to nest in
rotting wood, but will nest anywhere from soil
in open areas to human garbage.
What it eats: The tasty outer coating of seeds
and other insects like termites. Winnow ants
also like sugary foods.
NYC notes: Winnow ants and their close
relatives are rare in the most cement-caked
parts of the city, but in the refuge provided by
the big parks they remains common, found in
eight of 13 forests sampled by Amy Savage
and colleagues, for example.
65