Messor barbarus
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Messor barbarus is a species of harvester ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It is found In Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Messor barbarus causes 50–100% of the seed losses and is the most common ant in arable fields in northeastern Spain (Westerman et al. 2012). These ants in particular made news headlines all over Spain when farmers believed they were stealing their seeds and began a cull, only to realise they actually play a massive part of the ecosystem and benefit the production for crop farmers completely. Messors will carry the seeds on their own roads back to the colony, sometimes up to 100 feet (30 m) away.
Messor barbarus is found to act in accordance with the optimal foraging theory, which predicts that selectivity in ants increases with increasing richness of resources in an area, as well as with increasing distance from starting location. Trails were likewise differentially favored according to the relative abundance of resources provided to the ant populations. Highly frequented trails had a higher mean rate per worker, meaning the harvesters returned higher rates of resources more efficiently... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Barbary Harvester Ant sighting in Barcelona on a given day, based on 122 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 24th most-seen of the 381 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Barbary Harvester Ant in Barcelona on a given day, against under 5% in December, the lowest month. That is one of Barcelona's wettest months, with about 95 mm of rain against 35 mm in December.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Barbary Harvester Ant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Barbary Harvester Ant sightings, Barcelona ranks 3rd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Valencia (Spain, about 20%) and Madrid (Spain, about 20%).
Same family: Formicidae
The closest relatives of the Barbary Harvester Ant that you can see in Barcelona (family Formicidae, Ants) are Mediterranean Acrobat Ant (about 20%), Blood-Spotted Sugar Ant (about 20%) and Argentine Ant (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Barbary Harvester Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Barcelona (122 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
