Liometopum

Species richness
Species richness by country based on regional taxon lists (countries with darker colours are more species-rich). View Data



Biology
Species of this genus are found in the Holarctic Region as far south as southern México. This genus is very common in New Mexico; nests are usually located under stones or in living trunks or dead logs. Colonies are very large, probably numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands. The ants are very aggressive, and although they do not sting, they can be very unpleasant. (Mackay and Mackay 2002)

Efforts to locate colonies may be very exasperating: "While collecting in Colorado during the summer of 1903, I made repeated attempts to get at the nest of Liometopum .... The files of ants were often seen disappearing under rocks, but when these were lifted in the hope of finding their nests, it was found that only a runway or perhaps a succursal nest had been uncovered. In vain rocks were removed over large surfaces, only to find the burrow at last disappearing into the ground under the roots of some great tree, immovable boulder or cliff. The fact that in these runways the ants often congregate in numbers ... is apt to lead the observer to believe that he has found the nest, but these cavities contain no larvae, males, or females, and careful inspection shows that they lead off into a continuation of the runway. The cavities are, in fact, mere temporary resting places for the out- and home-bound companies of workers" (W.M. Wheeler, 1905:330).

Nomenclature

 *  LIOMETOPUM [Dolichoderinae: Tapinomini]
 * Liometopum Mayr, 1861: 38. Type-species: Formica microcephala, by monotypy.