Florida Carpenter Ant

Description:

A female worker specimen of C. floridanus. This is a widespread ant species here. Males have a more uniform orange color than the black gaster of the female. This is a fairly aggressive ant species, swarming within moments of a nest disturbance. Their powerful mandibles combined with formic acid spray makes them a very unpleasant species to be on the bad side of. This is though to be an adaptation from their nesting behavior. They favor rotting wood logs easily broken apart as their nesting grounds. C. floridanus is closely related to C. atriceps and in some circles is considered a subspecies that was isolated to Florida. More research is being done in this area.

Habitat:

Endemic to Florida, but can range as far north as North Carolina and as far west as Mississippi.