Ant Hill Wood

 I chose Eciton burchelli (South American Army Ant ) as the first picture to open this ant site of mine, as it possibly has the largest jaws (or mandibles to give them their correct name) of any ant I have ever seen; and it is an ant which has always impressed me for several reasons, as although there are several ant species around the world which have large and impressive mandibles, Eciton soldier caste give a bite that can pierce through even strong leather shoes. Even those ant species with small mandibles can give a good bite when they feel like it, and most can bite through human skin easily. Army ant soldiers cannot feed themselves, and have to be fed by smaller workers; and while perhaps the size of an Army ant soldier's jaws isn't everything, it certainly makes them a very formidable adversary indeed to be bitten by! Army ant photo used above with the kind permission of Alex Wild - Myrmecos.net

So I welcome you as visitor number  to my Ant Hill Wood.

 Hello to everyone who drops in for a stroll around Ant Hill Wood, you are most welcome here and thanks for dropping by. An excellent ant forum is run by my wife Jenny, and has over 780 members around the world, myself included. Her forum is Ant Hill World UK, and can be found by clicking this picture here} 

I now live in the West Sussex county town of Chichester, which is actually classed as a Cathedral City, due to the fact that it has a Norman Cathedral which was built in the year 1075AD, but was not consecrated until 1108AD by Bishop Luffa. Chichester is situated on the South Coast of England and was a Roman town of some importance, as Fishbourne Roman Palace is just nearby. It is about a 3 mile walk from my home to the South Downs, which is a formation of chalk and flint hills stretching from Eastbourne in East Sussex, to Winchester in Hampshire to the West, which again is a Cathedral City and the old capital town of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex. Before coming here I have lived in many lovely parts of England; but perhaps my favourite area was Hereford & Worcester where I walked the beautiful Malvern Hills and first discovered the wood ant species Formica rufa, an ant which has remained a firm favourite of mine since 1978 to the present day!

This is me doing my favourite pastime, and that is looking at wild ant colonies. In this particular case I am out with my wife, who is video filming the nest mounds of Formica rufa wood ants. In the second photo you can see a fairly large thatched mound that is the typical nest which wood ant species build.

 For further enjoyment of this little adventure of ours, please view my Ant Video page, where you find several new videos of this species recently added from filming done on June 3rd 2008.

If you read my "Fond Memories" page, you will perhaps gain some insight as to what kind of a person this ant lover really is? So please enjoy this ant site of mine and judge for yourself what makes me what I am; and just what makes me so fascinated by the family Formicidae, otherwise known quite simply as "Ants" to most of us!

Younger ant lovers may enjoy the stories of Honey the Meadow Ant, which can be found on my "Ant Tales" pages.

I hope you will enjoy this ant site of mine and take delight in the information to be found herein, which is mainly intended for the novice ant lover; and is not meant to be an in-depth study of Myrmecology ( The study of ants ). 

Ant photos placed on this site have been taken by myself, or my wife; unless otherwise stated, where they will be credited to the individual photographer who took them.

The above photo of my Messor barbarus was taken by my wife, and you can see the major worker sitting on the right wing of the horse fly. (Photo taken on August 7th, 2007)

Cameras used by us to obtain all of our own ant pictures are as follows. Fuji Finepix S602zoom and Finepix S9500, Minolta Dimage Z1; and Jenny is now using a Samsung Pro 815, which is a digital hybrid SLR. This gives good close up shots due to its high resolution lens. 

Please Note } All photos on this site are either owned by myself, or used with the express kind permission of each individual photographer. Under copyright law, it is an offence for anyone to use them for public display, or to use any other information found on this site done by me, without first gaining my full prior consent to do so!

Contacting Me

I can be Emailed at the address below, but do reserve the right not to reply if I consider your mail to be inappropriate or offensive. I will reply to questions about my site ONLY.  Please remember this prior to contacting me, and send your mail for the attention of Wood Ant. Thanks!

This site is fondly dedicated to my much loved and sadly missed dear departed father, who by getting me to help him in his garden lead me to the study of all kinds of insect life, and the eventual study and keeping of ants; and also to my lovely wife Jenny who has developed a keen interest in ants over the years of our marriage.

I thank my parents for allowing me to keep ants inside their home and release ants into their garden, and Jenny for putting up with all the ants I have kept in our spare bedroom over the years we have been together.

My thanks also go out to all of you ant lovers around the world who may visit this ant site of mine, as your interest and good wishes that some of you have expressed in your emails to me about the site are very much appreciated.

I would also like to extend a very big thanks, to all the members of Ant Hill World who gave their kind permission for me to use their ant photos. In particular, I'd like to thank my very good friend Heath Cope; as if he had not joined our thriving little ant community, I would never have got to know such a nice guy who takes such great ant photos! And not forgetting Tom; who lives in Somerset, for getting some of the most truly remarkable close up shots of ants that I've had the privilege to show on my site!

I am sorry I can't mention all you guys who have given your consent to use your photos by name, but you know you all have my gratitude for allowing me to use some really superb material, as your photos help to make this site on ants come alive for people everywhere who are into studying the fascinating world of ants.

 It is due to the guys from as far away as Australia, to as close to home as France and other parts of Europe; and not forgetting my many friends across the "big pond" in the United States of America, plus of course the guys here in the United Kingdom, that many of the excellent close up photos of different ant species appear on this Ant Hill site of mine.

A very big thank you goes to a lovely lady and good friend of my wife and myself, Sue York who lives in North Wales. Thanks to Sue for the lovely ant illustrations that appear on my "Honey the Ant" stories; and Sue is busy preparing more of these great pics to be added to my stories later. Cheers Sue for your great artwork. 

Many thanks to everyone for your contributions to this site, you're simply the best!!