Formica exsecta is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of ant

Ant

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

 found throughout Western Europe and Asia.

A rare formicine

Formicinae

Formicinae is a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.Formicines retain some primitive features such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little tendency toward reduction of palp or antennal segmentation in...

 ant with a deeply excised head, F. exsecta forms small mounds up to around a foot in height consisting of much finer material than that used by "true" wood ants of the F. rufa group

Formica rufa group

The Formica rufa group is a sub-generic group within the genus Formica, first proposed by William Morton Wheeler. It contains the large, mound-building species of Formica commonly termed "wood ants"....

.

An interesting feature of F. exsecta is that it comes in two distinct social forms. Either a monogyne form where the colony has a single egg-laying queen, or a polygyne form where many egg-laying queens are part of the same colony.

F. exsecta is placed in the Formica exsecta group within the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 and is closely related to Formica exsectoides, an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 species whose colonies

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 form vast networks.

In Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, F. exsecta can be found only in a few scattered heathland locations in South West England

South West England

South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...

 — principally Chudleigh Knighton Heath

Chudleigh Knighton Heath

Chudleigh Knighton Heath, near Chudleigh Knighton, Devon is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so designated because of its rare lowland heath vegetation. It is a habitat for many rare species including the ant, Formica exsecta...

 and nearby Bovey Heath

Bovey Heath

Bovey Heath is a 32 hectare area of heathland between Bovey Tracey and Heathfield in south Devon, England.Although primarily heathland habitat, the site has some wet mature oak woodland, and is home to rare species such as the Dartford Warbler, stonechat, nightjar and the narrow headed ant....

 which are both managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust

Devon Wildlife Trust

The Devon Wildlife Trust is a member of The Wildlife Trusts partnership covering the county of Devon, England. It is a registered charity, established in 1962 as the Devon Naturalists Trust, and its aim is to safeguard the future of the county's urban, rural and marine wildlife and its...

, and in the central Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 (including Rannoch Moor

Rannoch Moor

Rannoch Moor is a large expanse of around 50 square miles of boggy moorland to the west of Loch Rannoch, in Perth and Kinross and Lochaber, Highland, partly northern Argyll and Bute, Scotland...

). A population centre previously existed in the New Forest

New Forest

The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....

, and such eminent myrmecologists as Horace Donisthorpe

Horace Donisthorpe

Horace St. John Kelly Donisthorpe was an eccentric British myrmecologist and coleopterist, memorable in part for his enthusiastic championing of the renaming of the genus Lasius after him as Donisthorpea, and for his many claims of discovering new species of beetles and ants.He is often considered...

 recorded this species there and in Parkhurst forest

Parkhurst Forest

Parkhurst Forest is a woodland to the north-west of Newport, Isle of Wight .The site is partly a site of special scientific interest. It consists of both ancient woodland, relict heathland and plantation woodland. The woodland is freehold owned and managed by the Forestry Commission. It is 395...

 on the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 in the last century, but this seems to have declined considerably over the past few decades, and recent searches in such locations have failed to find any trace of colonies.

F. exsecta has also been found in forests in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.