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Is the mound ofFormica polyctena foerst. in orgin a simulation of a rock
1Zoological Laboratory, Department of Ecology, University of Leiden, Kaiserstraat 63, 2311 GP, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Oecologia
|March 18, 2017
Abstract:
The red wood antFormica polyctena builds a mound of dead vegetable material which is accumulated into a sort of loose thatch. Some taxonomic relatives ofFormica nest beneath rocks and the two nest types are closely related in a physical sense. Possibly this similarity is more than just coincidental. The hypothesis is suggested that the mound ofFormica polyctena has evolved as a simulation of a rock.

