Image database of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Cowling Arboretum and McKnight Prairie, Carleton College

Image database of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Cowling Arboretum and McKnight Prairie, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota

Taxa are listed alphabetically by species, species group or subgenus, genus, tribe, and finally subfamily. Although the taxanomic rank of tribe is not very meaningful (Bolton 1994, 1995), and was removed in the Dolichoderinae because it was meaningless (Shattuck 1994), we nevertheless group genera by tribe (when possible) because it is interesting to see how these taxa at least historically have been understood to be related. Full face and profile views of the three castes (worker, female reproductive, and male reproductive) are shown when available for each species.

All nomenclature follows Bolton (1995) except Formica incerta Buren, which Creighton (1950) made a junior synonym of F. nitidiventris Emery. James Trager identified specimens which we collected as F. incerta and F. nitidiventris. We follow his identification.

Note that the species shown in these images are not definitively identified but are shown to give an idea of what species in each particular genus or species group looks like. The identities of the Myrmica species pictured are especially unclear because no good key is available. Myrmica specimens were preliminarily identified using material deposited by Adre Francouer in the U. of Minnesota insect collection, although a revision of the genus is yet to be published.