Formica sanguinea
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Formica sanguinea, or blood-red ant, is a species of facultative slave-maker ant in the genus Formica characterized by the ability to secrete formic acid. It ranges from Central and Northern Europe through Russia to Japan, China, the Korean Peninsula, Africa and also the United States. This species is coloured red and black with workers up to 7 mm long.
A colony of F. sanguinea can live either as a free colony or as a social parasite of Formica species, most commonly Formica fusca, Formica japonica, Formica hayashi and Formica rufibarbis. Blood-red ants, F. sanguinea, are facultative slave-makers, meaning colonies can live either alone or be parasitic. This allows them to be a good model organism to study the origins of brood stealing. A fertilized F. sanguinea queen will enter the nest of the host ant species and kill their queen. She then takes advantage of the workers who tend to her and her brood. F. sanguinea workers will also raid nearby nests, stealing larvae and pupae to become future workers for F. sanguinea. The raids are also not exclusively for acquiring new workers but are sometimes predation events.
Formica sanguinea has not been observed to have division... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blood-Red Field Ant sighting in Vienna on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 1286th most-seen of the 1406 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blood-Red Field Ant in Vienna on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blood-Red Field 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.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Blood-Red Field Ant sightings, Vienna ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Budapest (Hungary, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blood-Red Field Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in Vienna (5 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.
