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students had found. As James stared out the window at the city
lights, I looked through the microscope at the details of a smaller
world.
On first inspection, there was no true rare gem in the samples.
There were winter ants (Prenolepis imparis), which I had already
pointed out to the students. Winter ants forage only in the cooler
times of the year when they can avoid competition with tougher
ants. There were other interesting ants too, but all were
predictable, species we were not surprised to find. Then there
was a species of the genus Nylanderia, the clan of the crazy ants.
There are a handful of Nylanderia species that might be found in
New York. That one of them might be common was, again, not
big news. But as we looked at this one, something about it was
strange. It was not one of the native species. WAIT! Here was
something big, maybe.
This Nylanderia species was something neither James nor I had
seen before. It was, it seemed that day and we later confirmed, a
Japanese species, Nylanderia flavipes. At the time, this species
does not appear to have been reported from Manhattan or even
from New York. What was more, it was the most common ant the
students had found. It was in nearly every patch of leaf litter
sampled in every park. In other words, the students had not
discovered a new rare species in the city. They had discovered a
new common one, a species no one appears to have really
realized was there and certainly that no one knew was so
You never know what you may find when you start collecting ants.
Our cities, parks and backyards may be some of our most
overlooked wild spaces. - © Alex Wild
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