Messor barbarus
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Barbary Harvester Ant sighting in Lisbon on a given day, based on 129 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 441 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.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Barbary Harvester Ant in Lisbon on a given day, against under 5% in December to February, the lowest months. That is one of Lisbon's wettest months, with about 85 mm of rain against almost none in July.
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.
5th of 5
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Barbary Harvester Ant sightings, Lisbon ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Valencia (Spain, about 20%), Madrid (Spain, about 20%) and Barcelona (Spain, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Barbary Harvester Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Lisbon (129 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.
