Antz Ants Formiche Ameise Formica is a genus of ants. It is the type genus of the family Formicidae and the subfamily Formicinae, and in turn Formica’s own type species is the European red wood ant Formica rufa. Common names for this group are wood ant, mound ant, and field ant. Many of the better known forest species have common names that include the words “wood ant”, although F.rufa is also known as the “horse ant”. (However in German, the equivalent term Rossameise refers to the carpenter ants of the genus Camponotus.) As the name wood ant implies, many Formica species live in wooded areas where there exists no shortage of material with which they can thatch their mounds. The most shade tolerant species are F. lugubris in Eurasia and F. subaenescens (fusca) in North America. However, sunlight is important to most Formica species, and colonies rarely survive for any considerable period in deeply shaded, dense woodland. The majority of species, especially outside the rufa species group, are inhabitants of more open woodlands or treeless grassland or shrubland. In North America, at least, these habitats had a long history of frequent landscape-scale fires that kept them open before European settlement. Conversion to agriculture and fire suppression have reduced the abundance of most American Formica, while the cessation of traditional haycutting seems to have had the same effect in Europe. However, at least a few Formica species may be found in a wide range of habitats …