Iacopo Nerozzi
A Fortress Made of Spruce Needles
Red wood ant nest in spruce needles, Italy, 2024
Category - Into the Forest
Some species are veritable environmental engineers, capable of modifying or building entirely new microhabitats within their ecosystems. A supercolony of red wood ants (Formica paralugubris) contains millions of individuals who work all day long gathering resin and spruce needles to construct their nests. These can reach heights of more than two metres, standing out in the forest as impressive fortresses teeming with tireless workers. This photo was taken in the context of Wood Wide Ants (WWA), a project at the University of Bologna, which aims to uncover the ecological and genomic mysteries behind the populations of Formica paralugubris in the Italian Apennines.
15 mm f/4 Lens - 1/20 sec at f/16 ISO 800