Formica fusca, the common black ant of Europe, is a palaearctic ant with a range extending from Portugal in the east to Japan in the west and from Italy in the south to Fennoscandia in the north. F. fusca nests are usually found in rotten tree stumps or under stones in clearcut areas and along woodland borders and hedgerows. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms (as opposed to folk taxonomy). ... Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera (sponges) Subregnum Agnotozoa Placozoa (trichoplax) Orthonectida (orthonectids) Rhombozoa (dicyemids) Subregnum Eumetazoa Radiata (unranked) (radial symmetry) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anemones) Bilateria (unranked) (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... Subphyla and Classes Subphylum Trilobitomorpha Trilobita - trilobites (extinct) Subphylum Chelicerata Arachnida - spiders,scorpions, etc. ... Classes & Orders See taxonomy Insects are invertebrate animals of the Class Insecta, the largest and (on land) most widely-distributed taxon within the phylum Arthropoda. ... Suborders Apocrita Symphyta Many families, see article Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. ... Subfamilies Dorylomorph subfamilies Apomyrminae Cerapachyinae Dorylinae Ecitoninae Formicomorph subfamilies: Aneuretinae Dolichoderinae Formicinae - e. ... Species very many, see text Formica is a genus of ants. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as , (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[1] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... The Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight ecozones dividing the Earth surface (see map). ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...

Colonies are facultatively polygynous (though weakly so); though the queens coexist amicably, contribution to the brood tends to be unequal. Nests are usually small, containing 500-2000 workers. The workers are large (8-10mm) and fast moving, though timid. F. fusca feeds on small insects, aphid honeydew and extra floral nectaries. Alate forms are produced in June/July and nuptial flights are in July/August. Nuptial flight is an important phase in the reproduction of most ant species. ...

A recent study (Hannonen & Sundström 2003) has found evidence of nepotism in F. fusca, in contrast with previous experiments with other ant species (Snyder 1993); this conclusion has been challenged, however, on the grounds that the observed pattern may result from differences in egg viability (Fournier et al. 2004). Nepotism means favoring relatives or personal friends because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities. ...

References

• Collingwood CA (1979) The Formicidae (Hymenoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica, Vol. 8, Scandinavian Science Press, Klampenborg, Denmark.
• Czechowski, W., Radchenko, A. & Czechowska, W. (2002) The Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Poland (Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
• Fournier, D., Aron, S. & Keller, L. (2004) Significant reproductive skew in the facultatively polygynous ant Pheidole pallidula. Molecular Ecology, 13:203-210.
• Hannonen, M. and Sundström, L. (2003) Worker nepotism among polygynous ants. Nature, 421:910.
• Snyder, L. (1993) Non-random behavioural interactions among genetic subgroups in a polygynous ant. Animal Behavior, 46:431-439.