Greetings Ant Lovers,

In this week’s video we hit the streets of New York City to see if people knew the ant species diversity of their city. We asked them how many ant species existed in New York City and promised them a prize of $100 cash if they answered correctly. Join us as we explore the ants of New York, on a quest to discover what ant diversity is like in the city. The video even features a random and awesome special celebrity appearance!

American Ant Challenge | The Ants of New York

I’ll give you 100 US dollars if you can correctly answer how many species of ants exist in New York City.

Yes, I’ll give you 100 US dollars if you can correctly answer how many species of ants there are in New York City.

I’ll give you 100 US dollars if you can correctly guess how many species of ants live in New York City.

Oh, I’ll give you 100 US dollars if you can correctly guess how many species of ants live in New York City!

I would guess, but I notice I don’t know how many species of ants live in New York City.

I notice the very small ones, and I know there are big black ants.

I’ll give you guys 100 USD if you can correctly answer how many species of ants live in New York City.

I’m gonna go with a crazy idea and say 127.

I would say five or six different species of ants in New York City.

What’s up guys, AntsCanada here! Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

I am here in the beautiful and awesome, amazing city, the Big Apple—New York City here in the US.

It’s just gorgeous here in Central Park, downtown New York—awesome place. Tons of animals, actually insects, bugs—it’s a nature lover’s heaven in the middle of the city, which is so cool.

And of course, I’m here to check out the ants, so come join me.

Now, I receive a lot of messages from you awesome ant keepers out there, and sometimes it seems a lot of you are sad because you’re convinced that there aren’t many species of ants found in your city.

Some of you have written to me saying, “AntsCanada, in the city I live, there’s no ant diversity. There are only three species of ants.”

So I thought I would check out the species diversity in one of the biggest cities I know—New York City, USA.

I figure if we can find multiple species of ants in this concrete jungle, it’s highly likely other cities possess similar ant diversity.

And so, here we go, guys. In this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel, join me on this quest to find out how many ant species exist in New York City.

And stay tuned for the contest at the end of this video.

Alright, guys, found our first group of ants. It’s a trail here, but I don’t know what species this is.

Could they be Lasius? Dorymyrmex?

Anyways, I’m gonna have my taxonomist friends take a look at this footage, and I’ll ask them what species it is, and I’ll put it in the video.

Awesome! It’s great to see them foraging in such cool weather.

Now, according to my myrmecologist friend, Dr. James Trager, this species is the beautiful Lasius emarginatus, originally from Europe but they’ve been able to establish themselves here in New York City.

Turns out these ants are naturalized immigrants.

I really like their color, and I think they look really, really cool.

Alright, I see more ants here, and once again, I don’t recognize the species.

I wonder, are they Lasius ants?

Hmm, I’m sorry, guys. Oh, and some of them are full.

See their gasters—those abdomens that are just full of food? They’re heading back to the nest to feed the rest of the colony.

They’re great! They’re about maybe just under three millimeters in length, and they’re heading towards their nest, which is somewhere in this rock face, I think.

Great! It’s such a highway here.

Check out all those ants heading back and forth from some kind of food source, I guess.

So, according to Dr. James Trager, these ants are Tapinoma sessile, also known as odorous house ants because if you squish them, they smell like blue cheese.

This species, found throughout North America, is considered polygynous, which means they create several satellite nests and are also polygyneous, which means one colony can contain many, many queens.

These ants are also house pests, often found nesting in homes and eating your food.

But you know what? These ants happen to be North American natives, so they’ve been here longer than modern-day America has been here.

So, I guess technically, this is their territory, and they’ll continue to run the land like they own it, even if it’s in your home.

Alright, we got Lasius. I recognize this ant.

Perhaps Lasius neoniger or some closely related species.

I love this genus for ant keeping—they’re very easy to care for. Actually, the queens are still flying.

Sometimes I’ve seen queens having nuptial flights in October if it’s warm for this genus.

They are foraging all over this rock face here.

It’s really amazing to see these ants foraging at such cool temperatures.

As you guys know, ants are cold-blooded, so their activities really depend on the ambient temperature of the environment they’re in.

These ants will soon be entering hibernation.

Now, for those of you with ants in temperate regions like here in North America, or in Europe, or temperate Asia, you guys will notice that the ants will still go into hibernation even though you try to heat them during the winter.

And this is because they run on a biological clock. You can’t fool the ants.

By the way, the temperature here in New York City during the filming of this video was 16 degrees Celsius, which is about 60 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Not too cold, but enough to slow the ants down.

Alright, good morning guys. It’s about 8 a.m. here in New York City. I’m here in the Madison Park area, still on a mission to find out what that magical number is—how many ants we can find here in New York City.

And I can tell you, it’s definitely more than three.

But part of the whole problem here is that it’s almost winter and very cold at night, and so the ants are starting to go into hibernation.

So we won’t be able to find all the ants, perhaps, but let’s hope to find as many as we can.

Hope to find more ants today, guys.

See those yellow ants?

I believe that is Lasius flavus or Lasius claviger. Let me smell them. Oh yeah, that’s Lasius claviger because they smell like citronella, or a related species.

And this is a social parasitic species, so the queens need a host to get started. They essentially take over the host colony.

The queen starts laying eggs, and then the host workers eliminate the real queen, and then they take care of the Lasius claviger brood.

And again, there are several closely related species, but they smell like citronella, so this is definitely the social parasitic species and not Lasius flavus.

Awesome, great! So cool, right?

Alright, there’s another ant here—not sure what it is.

Perhaps Lasius on this plant? I wonder if it’s looking for plant insects, maybe aphids or something to drink the honeydew from.

It’s here in the shade where it’s really cool, so it doesn’t look like it’s moving too quickly.

You cold, buddy? Winter is coming.

And here we have our friends, Tetramorium, pavement ants. And they’re not housing in pavement—they seem to be living in a little crevice here in this tree.

Awesome. People are looking at me weird as I’m filming the ground.

I don’t care. I love ants.

I’ll include an I-card for Tetramorium. I love this species because they’re very easy to keep. They grow very fast, and they love to eat.

And as you can see, they’re very active and form huge colonies.

Awesome! I found another ant here too. This here is Prenolepis imparis, winter ants.

Now, these ants are the first to forage after winter, and they are most active in the early spring and in fall.

They are cold-loving ants. They are such cool ants—they go into estivation, almost like a hibernation state, during the summer.

They don’t like it hot—they like it cold.

They have their nuptial flights in early spring. You’ll find them sometimes even flying when there’s frost on the ground. It’s crazy!

I’ll also include an I-card for these Prenolepis imparis ants and their care.

So check that out if you want.

These ants are called False Honeypot ants because they are like Honeypot ants found in deserts.

They have what are called repletes, which are living storage ants—worker ants that are just fed until their gasters are full of fluid food.

And that’s what they sustain themselves with. These ants have repletes as well—not as extreme as Myrmecocystus, which are the true Honeypot ants, but still impressive.

And they make great pet ants.

I love how shiny they look—the first and last of the North American foragers every year.

Alright, guys, so in the short amount of time that we were here, we were able to spot seven different species of ants.

But I do know for a fact that there are more than seven species here in New York City, including various species of Camponotus, like my very favorite Camponotus noveboracensis, also known as the New York carpenter ant.

There are also various Formica, Crematogaster, Brachymyrmex, and Pheidole species.

So what’s the actual number? How many species of ants exist here in New York City?

Well, according to the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, the actual number is this:

The correct answer is 42.

Yes, the correct answer is 42!

So, thank you so much for participating. The correct answer is 42!

Well, sir, the actual number is 42.

I’m sorry, ma’am, the correct answer is 42.

Alright, thank you, sir. Okay, the correct answer is 42!

Thanks, guys! Thanks for your hard work. Bye-bye!

So there you have it, guys—42 ant species in New York City.

And in most cases, in areas outside of cities, the ant species diversity is even greater.

So the next time you feel sad because you feel you don’t have many species of ants where you live, just look a bit harder and be patient—an abundance of life exists when you least expect it.

This is AntsCanada signing out, and always remember: it’s ant love forever.

Alright, guys, I’ll give you $100 if you can tell me how many species of ants live in New York City.

Five thousand?

Five thousand two hundred fifty-seven?

Alright, thanks, man. Just do me one favor—say, “It’s ant love forever.”

“It’s ant love forever!”

Okay guys, contest time! In fact, from now on, as a thank you to our growing AC family and to all you awesome subscribers of this channel for the amazing support of our ant videos, I’ve decided that I’ll be giving away free ant stuff from our shop.

It will be called the AC Question of the Week.

I’ll simply ask a trivia question regarding something mentioned in the video, and all you have to do is answer in the comment section, and you can be chosen to win free ant stuff from our shop.

The winner will be announced in the preceding video.

Sounds fun? Okay, let’s give it a try.

So this week’s AC Question of the Week is:

What is the name of the ant species that, when squished, smells like blue cheese?

The winner will win a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook eBook from our shop, which is a complete guide to keeping ants, including care sheets by species, nuptial flight schedules, and an ant glossary.

So, good luck, and stay tuned next week for the winner and for our next AC Question of the Week!

Oh yeah, and look who else has ant love.

Ant love forever!

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