Upper West Side ManhattAnt Natural History Illustrations and Images

Summary: ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images educate guests and locals about what to expect when encountering Manhattan's Upper West Side endemic.

Manhattan ants, known popularly as ManhattAnts, were discovered in median at Manhattan's West 63rd Street and Broadway; Bank of America's Financial Center (left) anchors the intersection, across from the Empire Hotel (right); Friday, Nov. 23, 2007, 16:09:01: Chris Eason (Mister-E), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images announce a new species that appears, with a geographically accurate common name and without an appropriate scientific name, in a 10-block area of New York City.

Annie Karni broaches the Upper West Side endemic in the article New Breed of Ruffi-Ant Found in Manhattan for the New York Post Sep. 2, 2012. Rachel Nuwer likewise considers the Formicidae ant family member in the article NYC Has Its Own Ant, the ManhattAnt for Smithsonian's SmartNews section Sep. 5, 2012. They describe the Manhattan Upper West Side dwellers as day-in, day-out denizens of two Broadway traffic medians, one at 63rd Street and another at 76th Street.

The ManhattAnt species encounters food and shelter in traffic median bushes, grasses, shrubs, trees and weeds and on benches, lamp and sign posts and trash receptacles.

Daily diets favor grease or protein over sugar in terms of urbanized fire ants and of sugar over protein in terms of carpenter and pavement ants.

Robert R. Dunn, doctoral graduate of the University of Connecticut in Hartford and biologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, first glimpsed ManhattAnts this year. He headed out, as an applied ecologist, during breaks from teaching duties at Columbia University on Manhattan's Upper West Side to harvest specimens from Broadway medians. He indicates, "At first, we were flying to the tropics to study life," until "I thought: What if we look right in front of the building?"

Researchers in the Rob Dunn Lab judged that none of the Broadway median specimens from 63rd and 76th Streets matched any of 13,000 known ant species.

Professor Dunn knows of no scientifically described and named ant species with the same behavioral patterns, distribution ranges, life cycles and physical appearances as the ManhattAnt.

Dead and living specimens lead him to look for their closest relatives among cornfield ants, known as Lasius alienus ("hairy other") and Lasius neoniger ("hairy neo-black"). The former, mentioned in 1850 by Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster (Nov. 9, 1789-Feb. 2, 1860), maintains habitat niches from the Caucasus Mountains through the Iberian Peninsula. North American niches nurture the latter, named Labor Day, nuisance or turfgrass ant commonly and scientifically in 1893 by Carlo Emery (Oct. 25, 1848-May 11, 1925).

Dead and living ManhattAnt specimens and ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images offer opportunities to observe behavioral, distributional and physical differences that occasion separate species status.

ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images and their models persuade Dunn that "It's new to North America, and we believe it's new to the entire world."

ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images queue their model up "like it's from Europe, but we can't match it up with any of the European species." The big-eyed, dark-headed, red-limbed, red-thoraxed, dark-abdomened ManhattAnt retains high carbon levels that reveal corn syrup-sweetened urban junk and street food-eating and relationships with sugar-loving cornfield ants. Urban food-foraging ManhattAnts spur Dunn's "looking to get a sense of whether the diets of urban ants are as crappy as the diets of urban humans."

ManhattAnt natural history illustrations and images team European cornfield ant-like physical appearances and sugar preferences and European pavement ant-like (Tetramorium caespitum) habitat niches and urban diets.

ManhattAnt discoverer Rob Dunn looks to North America's cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger) as among his discovery's closest relatives; queen cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger), Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma; Monday, Sep. 17, 2012, 22:35: Robert Webster/xpda.com, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Manhattan ants, known popularly as ManhattAnts, were discovered in median at Manhattan's West 63rd Street and Broadway; Bank of America's Financial Center (left) anchors the intersection, across from the Empire Hotel (right); Friday, Nov. 23, 2007, 16:09:01: Chris Eason (Mister-E), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mister-e/2074633778/

ManhattAnt discoverer Rob Dunn looks to North America's cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger) as among his discovery's closest relatives; queen cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger), Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma; Monday. Sep. 17, 2012, 22:35: Robert Webster/xpda.com, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lasius_neoniger_P1330344a.jpg;
via Bugs Pictures From Earth @ https://xpda.com/bugs/pic.aspx?fname=P1330344a.jpg (photo URL), https://xpda.com/bugs/imagesets.aspx?tid=34743 (Lasius neoniger gallery page)

For further information:

Fisher, Brian L.; and Stefan P. Cover. 2007. Ants of North America: A Guide to the Genera. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.

Hölldobler, Bert; and Edward O. Wilson 1990. The Ants. Cambridge MA: Belknap Press division of Harvard University Press.

Karni, Annie. 2 September 2012. "New Breed of Ruffi-Ant Found in Manhattan." New York Post > Metro.
Available @ https://nypost.com/2012/09/02/new-breed-of-ruffi-ant-found-in-manhattan/

Nuwer, Rachel. 5 September 2012. "NYC Has Its Own Ant, the ManhattAnt." Smithsonian > SmartNews.
Available @ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nyc-has-its-own-ant-the-manhattant-25741340/

"Rob R. Dunn." NC State University > Faculty and Staff > Faculty > Applied Ecology.
Available @ https://appliedecology.cals.ncsu.edu/faculty/rob-r-dunn/