Immigrant Pavement Ant

Immigrant Pavement Ant

Tetramorium immigrans

Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Boston

In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%

189 Verified sightings at Boston
5 In 1 park From 2019 to 2026
April Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Immigrant Pavement Ant

Tetramorium immigrans—also known as the immigrant pavement ant, pavement ant, and the sugar ant in parts of North America—is an ant native to Europe, which also occurs as an introduced pest in North America. Its common name comes from the fact that colonies in North America usually make their nests under pavement. This is one of the most commonly seen ants in North America, being well adapted to urban and suburban habitats. It is distinguished by a single pair of spines on the back, two nodes on the petiole, and grooves on the head and thorax.

Pavement ants have been studied on the International Space Station in 2014. The pavement ant is dark brown to blackish, and 2.5–4 millimeters (0.10–0.16 in) long. A colony is composed of workers, alates, drones (male ants), and a queen. Workers do have a small stinger, which can cause mild discomfort in humans but is essentially harmless. Alates, or new queen ants and drones, have wings, and are at least twice as large as the workers. Tetramorium nuptial flights occur in spring and summer; queens and drones leave the nest and find a mate. The drone's only job is to mate with the virgin queens. The dealate, or newly fertilized... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Acadia National Park 🇺🇸 United States
<5%

More parks will be added in future updates.

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Salt Lake City 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
2 Boston 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
3 Philadelphia 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
4 Denver 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
5 New York City 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
6 Washington 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
7 Toronto 🇨🇦 Canada
~10%
8 Detroit 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
9 Seattle 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
10 Portland 🇺🇸 United States
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing an Immigrant Pavement Ant in Boston?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Immigrant Pavement Ant sighting in Boston on a given day, based on 189 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 91st most-seen of the 1200 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see an Immigrant Pavement Ant in Boston?

Any time of year

In every month with enough records, about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Immigrant Pavement Ant in Boston on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.

What time of day is best to see an Immigrant Pavement Ant?

Between noon and 3 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Immigrant Pavement Ant sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Boston the best place to see an Immigrant Pavement Ant?

2nd of 17

Of the 17 cities where we can rate Immigrant Pavement Ant sightings, Boston ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Salt Lake City (United States, about 20%).

Where does the Immigrant Pavement Ant sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Immigrant Pavement Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Boston (189 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.

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