Formicidae - Ants

All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.

Bees, Wasps, Ants

Bees, wasps and ants (plus sawflies) are all part of the insect order - Hymenoptera (means 'membrane wings'). A typical hymenopteran has 2 pairs of wings though they are coupled together with tiny hooks so appear as 1 pair. This is a very diverse group with many species which represents a major challenge to those wanting to identify them. We have produced separate resource pages for ants and sawflies, but this still leaves a huge range of species!

Whilst everyone is familiar with bumblebees, the 25 UK species represent just 10% of all the bee species. The remainder are 'solitary' bees that don't work together as a single colony to rear their young. There are some very good resources to bees and the 2015 Field Guide to Bees of Great Britain and Ireland is very helpful.

There is even greater diversity of wasps. As with the bees there are a few social wasps that everyone is familiar with, but these represent just a small fraction of all UK wasps. Solitary wasps such as ichneumons are not at present covered by a popular field guide but there are a number of useful resources to help with identification.

Many members of this group are difficult or impossible to identify from field images. Make sure that your images include the diagnostic features needed to make a definitive identification.

More information can be found on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society's website (BWARS) - www.bwars.com/home

Identification help can be found by posting images on the BWARS Facebook group.

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Formicidae - Ants

There are a staggering 15,000 or more species of ant across the world but here in the UK there are 11 genera comprising 51 native species, with a further 1 genera and three species restricted to the Channel Islands. There are a further 13 introduced species associated with artificially heated environments such as greenhouses and conservatories. Despite being the most numerous insect on the planet, ants are drastically under-recorded at both a National and International level with most records derived from a band of dedicated entomologists, myrmecologists and ant enthusiasts. Ant abundance is perhaps their downfall; they are often overlooked and yet, as ecosystem engineers, they are of great ecological importance. Seed spreaders, habitat creators, corpse removers, soil turners, butterfly farmers, beetle harbourers, bird and mammal food...the benefits of ants on the wider environment are numerous and complex. In VC55 Leicestershire and Rutland we have 24 species of ant and a significant number of these are considered uncommon, rare or rarely recorded.

See Ant Recording and Identification

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