Ants of a residential yard in Buffalo, New York

Since I am staying home due to the coronavirus, I thought this would be a great time to get to know the ants of a small area really well. I am up in Buffalo, NY fixing up a house (normally I live in El Paso, TX). It has a small, typical yard pictured above. A Norway spruce dominates the backyard and there is a maple in front. A little atypically maybe I dont spray the yard and it was very overgrown when I got here and there are still brush piles and a standing dead tree. below is an anotated checklist of the ants I have found, in order of conspicuousness and abundance. I'm no good with photos, so each has a link to antwiki, and I list the subfamily after the name. I have pinned specimens of each and I encourage you to think about taking up collecting ants and insects as a rewarding and scientifically useful hobby in these weird times!

• Camponotus pennsylvanicus (Formicinae)

  This is the giant black ant you see in yards and sidewalks. there is another big black ant, not quite as big, see the next entry, but this one is easily distinguished by having golden hairs on the gaster, that you can see easily with the naked eye on both majors and minors. To me they have a sort of jittery, wasp-like habit of running around. I don't know where their nest is I have heard they can travel quite far from their nests, like 300m, or three football fields!

• Camponotus nearcticus (Formicinae)

  This is the ant I see (sometimes) in the house, eating the dogs food or looking for goodies on the kitchen counter. They are still large but not as big as the above pennsylvanicus and seem to have more of a steady gait. I never see more than a few even at the dog's food. I've heard they like to nest in the rafters. When I lived in the county south of here, these were the only visitors I had to my hummingbird feeder. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've seen these other than in the house. I think I often dismiss big black ants as "another Camponotus".

• Tetramorium immigrans (Myrmicinae)

  This smallish, brownish, steadily moving ant rules the sidewalk. They are brownish and beautifully sculptured when you look up close. Aside from foraging on the pavement they can be found under rocks, and they like to nest in the soil under sidewalks, and are usually found where people live in the Northeast US. They originally came from Europe and have been in the US for a long time.

• Crematogaster cerasi (Myrmicinae)

  This is the last of the four most common ants in the yard. They can frequently be found tending aphids and there is an exposed root where they can be found trailing day and night. Supposedly they make very large colonies and that seems reasonable given their abundance. The heart-shaped gaster and how it is attached on the dorsal surface is a give away for Crematogaster. Some cerasi are bicolored, here they are all black.

• Formica cf pallidefulva (Formicinae)

  I am really unsure of my Formica identifications so I'm going to leave this tentative. Nevertheless this fast moving ant has been found in the front and the back, foraging on the ground. Hard to catch (with an asperator)! Ours seem to be more brown than yellow. I'm curious to know where their nest is (or nests are).

• Temnothorax longispinosus (Myrmicinae)

  This is one of my favorites and I found them stationary on maple tree seedling leaves about 20cm off the ground. Nearby was a very large Crematogaster highway on an exposed root. They are generally slow moving and have been well studied. I wonder if biologists prefer to study slow moving things...

• Tapinoma sessile (Dolichoderinae)

  if you live in the US or Canada, this ant probably lives near you. They are a native ant that is well adapted to living with people and a common pest ant, although here I have only found them outside. They move their nests around frequently. I found a nest unser a brick in the garden, They weren't there the week before and they weren't there the next day. This is our first ant not in the two big subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae, being in dolichoderinae, and perhaps being the only member of that subfamiliy we will find.

Ant species recorded for New York state

Here is a list of ants found in New York State according to antweb.org
list extracted May 2019 (80 species)

• Aphaenogaster picea
• Aphaenogaster rudis
• Aphaenogaster tennesseensis
• Aphaenogaster treatae
• Brachymyrmex depilis
• Camponotus americanus
• Camponotus castaneus
• Camponotus nearcticus
• Camponotus novaeboracensis
• Camponotus pennsylvanicus
• Crematogaster cerasi
• Crematogaster lineolata
• Dolichoderus mariae
• Dolichoderus plagiatus
• Dolichoderus taschenbergi
• Formica difficilis
• Formica dolosa
• Formica exsectoides
• Formica fusca
• Formica glacialis
• Formica incerta
• Formica integra
• Formica lasioides
• Formica neogagates
• Formica nepticula
• Formica obscuripes
• Formica obscuriventris
• Formica pallidefulva
• Formica pergandei
• Formica rubicunda
• Formica subaenescens
• Formica subintegra
• Formica subsericea
• Lasius alienus
• Lasius americanus
• Lasius brevicornis
• Lasius claviger
• Lasius emarginatus
• Lasius flavus
• Lasius interjectus
• Lasius latipes
• Lasius murphyi
• Lasius nearcticus
• Lasius neoniger
• Lasius subglaber
• Lasius umbratus
• Monomorium pharaonis
• Myrmecina americana
• Myrmica americana
• Myrmica fracticornis
• Myrmica pinetorum
• Myrmica punctiventris
• Nylanderia flavipes
• Nylanderia parvula
• Pheidole anastasii
• Pheidole davisi
• Pheidole morrisii
• Pheidole pilifera
• Pheidole tysoni
• Polyergus lucidus
• Polyergus sanwaldi
• Ponera coarctata
• Ponera pennsylvanica
• Prenolepis imparis
• Solenopsis molesta
• Stenamma diecki
• Stenamma impar
• Stenamma schmittii
• Stigmatomma pallipes
• Strumigenys pergandei
• Tapinoma sessile
• Temnothorax ambiguus
• Temnothorax americanus
• Temnothorax curvispinosus
• Temnothorax longispinosus
• Tetramorium atratulum
• Tetramorium caespitum
• Tetramorium immigrans
• Tetramorium tsushimae
• Trichomyrmex destructor



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