Formica rufa: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the Formica rufa lives – recorded in 16 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Formica rufa
Group	Bees, wasps & ants
Status	Near threatened (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	16 countries
Continents	Europe, North America
Class	Insect
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Formicidae

Where does the Formica rufa live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the Formica rufa in 16 countries and territories across Europe and North America.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the Formica rufa endangered?

The Formica rufa’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Near threatened” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the Formica rufa?

The Formica rufa (Formica rufa) is an insect in the order Hymenoptera and the family Formicidae, genus Formica. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the Formica rufa

Formica rufa, also known as the red wood ant, southern wood ant, or horse ant, is a boreal member of the Formica rufa group of ants, and is the type species for that group, being described by Linnaeus. It is native to Eurasia, with a recorded distribution stretching from the middle of Scandinavia to northern Iberia and Anatolia, and from Great Britain to Lake Baikal, with unconfirmed reports of it in the Russian Far East. There are claims that it can be found in North America, but this is not confirmed in specialised literature: no recent publication where North American wood ants are listed mentions it as present and records from North America are listed as dubious or unconfirmed in a record compilation. The workers' heads and thoraces are colored red and the abdomen brownish-black, usually with dark patches on the head and promesonotum, although some individuals may be more uniformly reddish and even have some red on the part of the gaster facing the body. In order to separate them from closely related species, specimens needs to be inspected under magnification, where difference in hairiness is among the telling characteristics, with Formica rufa being hairier than, for example, Formica polyctena but less hairy than Formica lugubris. Workers are polymorphic, measuring 4.5–9 mm in length. They have large mandibles and, like many other ant species, are able to spray formic acid from their abdomens as a defence. Formic acid was first extracted in 1671 by the English naturalist John Ray, by distilling a large number of crushed ants of this species. Adult wood ants primarily feed on honeydew from aphids. Some F. rufa colonies are large networks of connected nests with multiple queens, while others have a single queen.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Formica rufa (revision 1374295835), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q148769 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).