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ant species. With little black ants around to keep predators away,
aphid numbers increase up to tenfold their normal abundance.
School of Ants Map - Little Black Ant
Although up to the challenge in groups, when little black ants get
caught alone, they have other options. Suppose a fire ant finds a
little black ant hanging out on a root and decides to pick a fight.
Instead of fighting back, our little black ant “flags” her gaster (her
abdomen), wagging it around in the air as if to say, “You’d better
stay away from me! I mean business!” While she wags, she
releases noxious toxins, hoping to repel a contender before she
has to fight.
If booty-shaking fails, our little black ant will curl up and act dead,
playing possum in the hopes that the fire ant will think herself
victorious and just go away. Sometimes, little black ants combine
their individual possum-playing and group brawling behaviors to
persist in areas with more dominant ant species. These little
ladies can even push out fire ants trying to move into their
neighborhood. They snack on fire ant babies as a reward for
triumphant battle.
When Will and I watched the little black ants twine around our
cherry tree on those hot summer days, fire ants had not yet made
their march into North Carolina. Little black ants were the only
game in town on that side of our house, with carpenter ants and
field ants galloping through the front yard and Forelius ants
staking their claim to the hard-packed dirt and centipede grass in
the backyard. Will’s a grown-up lawyer now; his monkey toes
North American distribution of the little black ant. Visit
www.schoolofants.org/species/2152 for an interactive version.
spend the day in dressy shoes. The cherry tree was cut down 20
years ago, its last fat fruits still clung to the branches all piled up
on the curb. But little black ants are the same. When I find them
greeting me on the walkways of campus or snaking across my
porch, their shiny heads determinedly pushing forward, I fill up
with the pleasure of seeing old friends. When we understand
these elements of nature, get to know them by name and habit,
we will always be surrounded by friends.
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