Formica cunicularia
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Formica cunicularia is a species of ant found all over Europe.<ref name=":0" /> They are especially common in western Europe and southern England, but they can be found from southern Scandinavia to northern Africa and from Portugal to the Urals.<ref name=":0" /> In England, Donisthorpe records the species as having occurred as far north as Bewdley in Worcestershire.<ref name="Donisthorpe">Donisthorpe, Horace St. John Kelly. (1915). British Ants: Their Life-History and Classification Template:Webarchive. Reprinted 2013, London: Forgotten Books. pp. 318–320.</ref> In Formica cunicularia, the worker is an ashy grey black color and is usually 4.0–6.5 mm long.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The males are found to have a uniformly dark body and are 8.0–9.0 mm long.<ref name=":0" /> The queen is yellowish red to dark black and is 7.5–9.0 mm.<ref name=":0" />
Habitat
F. cunicularia has habitat ranging from open to relatively cluttered to visually rich.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> In Finland, Albrecht found that all nests were small, with single entrances in dry, hot environments with low vegetation.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They nest under stones or in small earth mounds.<ref name=":0" /> Nests are usually separate, containing one queen.<ref name=":0" /> F. cunicularia, unlike most other Formica fusca-group species, can form noticeable hillocks over its nests, and in addition to these produces rufibarbis-like runs in the vicinity of its nest.
Biology
When found in arid and semi-arid regions, these ants feed primarily on seeds and as such, their anthills have a much higher density of seeds, but due to the seed preference of the ants there is less seed diversity.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> F. cunicularia will follow irregular paths while they forage, but will follow a straight path home when finished.<ref name=":1" /> They do this by a process called path integration where they analyze their total distance and direction on their foraging trips so that they can follow that straight path home.<ref name=":1" /> That isn't the only mechanism that explains their homing behavior though. They can also find a path home based on visual cues in their surroundings.<ref name=":1" /> An interesting facet of their homing behavior is that they will combine these two methods when in unfamiliar terrain.<ref name=":1" /> F. cunicularia have the ability to discern between multiple shades of a color and they are particularly good at distinguishing two different greens; This is probably because they often live in very green rich environments.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They live in small colonies of around 5000 individuals.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> They are predaceous but are often scavengers.<ref name=":0" /> Its appearance and habits ally it, to some extent, with Formica rufibarbis, although the former's red markings are far less conspicuous. Horace Donisthorpe comments:<ref name="Donisthorpe" />
- Forel points out that [Formica fusca var.] rubescens [=F. cunicularia] has frequently been confounded with rufibarbis, and it is probable that some British records of ... rufibarbis really refer to this variety.
Lichen dispersal
An interesting coincidence of these ants is that they help lichen disperse. Lichen has trouble on its own and the soredia of the lichen can attach to the ants by virtue of being so small.<ref name=":2" /> In areas where they overlap we see more of certain types of lichen growing due to the F. cunicularia's help.<ref name=":2" /> There doesn't seem to be any benefit to the ants.<ref name=":2" />
As a slave species
F. cunicularia is a host of the slave-making ant Polyergus rufescens.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref> Slave makers P. rufescens will raid to kill adults in the F. cunicularia colony and steal their brood to be raised to do domestic tasks.<ref name=":3" /> P. rufescens will choose to parasitize F. cunicularia over other choices even when available.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A gland not unique to F. cunicularia is the Dufour's gland. It is involved with many behaviors of ants, such as trail following, clustering, but also alarm and defense.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When F. cunicularia daubed with extract from a slave-maker ant's Dufour's gland, there was a significant decrease in aggression towards invading workers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This facilitates the takeover of the hosts colony. Another possible reason for F. cunicularia being chosen as a host species more often because they don't resist as much as other species. In an experiment involving cocoons of multiple species, they didn't discriminate between their own and the slave-making species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>