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Seed planting is a successful business for winnow ants and the
seeds they plant. Almost two-thirds of all herb seeds produced in
the forest are picked up by winnow ants. These are herbs like wild
ginger and trillium. Also, when winnow ants are removed from
forests, some wildflower abundance drops by 50 percent. Seed
planting also helps the ants. When winnow ants eat that candy
coating elaiosome, they get all the nutrients they need to make
more babies.
Farming isn’t the winnow ant’s only talent. Like other animals,
from woodpecker finches to chimpanzees to humans, winnow
ants use tools to gather food. When a winnow ant happens upon
School of Ants Map - Winnow Ant
North American distribution of the winnow ant. Visit
www.schoolofants.org/species/1160 for an interactive version.
liquids too goopy to carry back to her nest, she goes out in the
forest and collects bits of leaves and sticks. She takes these bits
back to the newfound food and drops them right on top of it.
These leaves and sticks become little plates for winnow ants.
Workers bring the plates back to the nest for the colony to feast
from like Sunday churchgoers at a potluck dinner.
Aphaenogaster rudis is a fancy name, but the winnow ant earned
it. How many of us have stood in the living city of a forest, awed
by the architecture surrounding us? Somewhere, tucked into the
hustle and bustle of creatures keeping the forest alive, creep
winnow ants, rusty little architects helping shape everything we
see on the ground floor.
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