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Fighting forest ants part 1 This is the first thing I saw. Lots of ants carrying deceased others or parts of them. By then I asked myself if they had been fighting or something else caused harm to them.<br /> A bit later on I found two ants fighting so that answered my question. Notice that the dead ant is larger then the one which carries him, so it seems the smaller ants where winning from the larger ones. Formica rufa,Geotagged,The Netherlands Click/tap to enlarge Country intro

Fighting forest ants part 1

This is the first thing I saw. Lots of ants carrying deceased others or parts of them. By then I asked myself if they had been fighting or something else caused harm to them.
A bit later on I found two ants fighting so that answered my question. Notice that the dead ant is larger then the one which carries him, so it seems the smaller ants where winning from the larger ones.

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  1. View Joost Thissen's profile
    Joost Thissen
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    Other pictures in the series:
    Fighting forest ants part 3 In the heat of the fight. I watched them going on for a few minutes but they where just pulling each other back and forth without seeming able to hurt each other. Formica rufa,Geotagged,The Netherlands

    Fighting forest ants part 2 Imagine you are an ant waking up from your winter sleep, just to find out some foreign ants set up camp next to yours and harvesting your favorite aphids. That calls for war, at least in the ant point of view. And that what is going on here, two ants of rivaling borrows fighting. Notice that the smaller ant on the right is biting the large one in it's antenna. I thought that was not very smart if you are the smaller one, but another picture I made suggests that the small ones where winning. Formica rufa,Geotagged,The Netherlands
     Posted 12 years ago, modified 12 years ago

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The Southern wood ant

''Formica rufa'', also known as the southern wood ant or horse ant, is a boreal member of the ''Formica rufa'' group of ants, commonly found throughout much of Europe in both coniferous and broad-leaf broken woodland and parkland.

Info 15 1
Similar species: Wasps, Bees, Sawflies And Ants
Species identified by Joost Thissen
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By Joost Thissen

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
Uploaded Apr 20, 2013. Captured Apr 14, 2013 12:29 in Bestseweg, 5691 Son, The Netherlands.
country flag of Netherlands Explore Netherlands 8,314 2,306 0
  • SLT-A55V
  • f/14.0
  • 1/160s
  • ISO200
  • 90mm