The Japanese Wood Ant is an East Asian field ant that is not known from the United States. Workers carry dead nestmates out of the nest when a chemical signal builds up on their bodies.
Appearance
Appearance
Workers are small black ants, around 0.2 in (5 mm) long, with little shine. Close photographs are often needed for species-level identification among similar field ants.
Where it lives
Typical habitats
grasslands in East Asia
open mountain areas in Japan
urban green spaces in Japan
Range
It lives in Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East; it is not known from the United States.
Preferred conditions
It favors sunny, open ground and nests in soil.
Behavior
Diet
In its East Asian range, workers collect aphid honeydew and hunt small insects.
Activity
In Japan, workers forage over open ground and use nest entrances that open at the soil surface.
Social life
Workers remove dead nestmates from the colony. Experiments found that accumulating after death helps trigger this response.
Name and classification
About the name
Formica fusca nipponensis is an older name for this ant.