Hercules ant
The Hercules ant is a big carpenter ant with a blackish head and a dark reddish brown middle. It chews out its home inside wood, like a tiny carpenter. It lives in forests across the cold north of the world.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A queen is about 15 millimetres long, one of the biggest ants of the north.
Its tunnels inside a standing tree can reach 10 metres up from the ground.
Its workers come in three sizes: big, middle and small.
On warm spring days, winged young queens and males fly out in big swarms.
It looks after the caterpillars of the silvery blue butterfly.
Most asked questions about Hercules ant
?Where does the Hercules ant live?
In forests and mountains across northern Europe, Asia and North America.
?What does the Hercules ant eat?
Sweet honeydew from aphids and the larvae of other insects.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Camponotus herculeanus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Camponotus herculeanus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by April Nobile. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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