Messor ibericus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Messor ibericus, commonly known as the Iberian harvester ant, is a species of harvester ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae found throughout Europe, although they are found mostly in the Iberian Peninsula. They prefer open dry areas, such as scrub or grasslands, and feed on a variety of seeds.
M. ibericus are reddish brown in colour, workers and queens being 4–9 millimetres (0.16–0.35 in) and 9–10 millimetres (0.35–0.39 in) in length respectively. It has relatively small eyes. Males of this species can be distinguished from males of M. structor by the presence of hair (M. structor males are hairless).
Queens of M. ibericus can produce male offspring of the species Messor structor, which is not a sister species, by laying eggs that only contain DNA from M. structor in its nucleus. The nuclear DNA from the egg is removed, only keeping the nuclear DNA of the sperm, resulting in clonal reproduction for the males. This is required because the queen can only produce (female) worker ants using sperm from M. structor, making all workers hybrid. The queen can still create male offspring of her own species, but their sperm cannot produce workers, only queens. The... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madrid | 🇪🇸 Spain |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Iberian Harvester Ant sighting in Madrid on a given day, based on 41 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 97th most-seen of the 457 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March to December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Iberian Harvester Ant in Madrid on a given day, against under 5% in January and February, the lowest months.
Only Madrid, in our data
Madrid is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Iberian Harvester Ant sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Iberian Harvester Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Madrid (41 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.
