Prenolepis nitens: 9 Facts About the Winter Ant of Europe
Most ants in Europe are fast asleep in winter. Prenolepis nitens is not like most ants. This small, shiny ant from south-eastern Europe is busiest when it is cold, takes it easy in summer and has workers that turn into living food stores. We dug into the research: here are nine facts about this unusual species.
1. It works when other ants rest
Prenolepis ants are cold-hardy and often active at temperatures at which almost every other ant stays inside. Researchers have recorded Prenolepis nitens workers active in winter at only around 2 to 3°C. That is why its relatives in North America are simply called winter ants.
2. It takes a break in summer
The flip side of loving the cold: summer heat is not its thing. The colony starts the season early in spring and slows down when it gets hot. In its American cousin, Prenolepis imparis, the colony almost disappears from the surface in summer while the work goes on underground.
3. Some workers become living pantries
A part of the workers fill their gaster with food until it swells up like a little amber bead. These full workers store reserves for the whole colony. In the wild they usually stay in the nest and often sit together in a cluster on the underside of the stone above it.
4. It is not a real honey pot ant
The real honey pot ants of Myrmecocystus hang from the ceiling of their nest as living barrels of nectar. Prenolepis nitens does not do that, its swollen workers just walk around with a full belly. Research on the American winter ant even showed that much of the swelling comes from stored fat, not only from liquid food. So these are pantries for sugar and fat at the same time.
5. The winged ants spend the winter at home
In most ants the winged queens and males leave the nest soon after they are raised. In Prenolepis they stay inside through the winter and only fly out on warm days in early spring. For Prenolepis nitens the known flights are in spring, so young queens start their colony at the start of the season instead of at the end.
6. Its name means shining
Nitens is Latin for shining, and the smooth, glossy workers live up to it. The species was first described in 1853 by Gustav Mayr from Austria, as Tapinoma nitens. Only later did it get its place in the genus Prenolepis.
7. It has an American twin
For a long time Prenolepis nitens was seen as a subspecies of the North American winter ant, Prenolepis imparis. The workers are almost identical. Today they are treated as two separate species that are each other’s closest relatives. Together they are the only common Prenolepis species in the temperate north, while most of the other species live in the tropics of southern China and South-East Asia.
8. It likes shade and damp
In the wild Prenolepis nitens mostly lives in deciduous forests, often near streams, and nests under stones. It prefers shady, damp places and can be found from sea level into the mountains. In Greece it has been recorded up to around 1,200 m.
9. The queen is a giant next to her workers
Workers are only roughly 3 to 4 mm long, but the queen is roughly 8 to 9 mm, more than twice their length, with a big glossy gaster. Put a queen between her first workers and the difference is striking.
Keeping Prenolepis nitens yourself
All of this shows up at home too. Prenolepis nitens needs a cool spot, a real winter rest and a lot of calm, and grows slowly. Everything about care is in our Prenolepis nitens care guide. Want to start? Have a look at our Prenolepis nitens colonies. More surprising ant behaviour can be found in our 10 bizarre ant facts.
Sources
AntWiki. Prenolepis nitens. Including Borowiec and Salata (2021, 2022) and Lőrinczi (2016).
AntWiki. Prenolepis. Including Tschinkel (1987) and Williams and LaPolla (2016).
Vesnić, A. and Lelo, S., 2010. A contribution to the knowledge of distribution of the species Prenolepis nitens in the southwest part of the Balkan Peninsula. Acta Entomologica Serbica.
Photos: queen by @photography_by_gus; worker © Jonghyun Park, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist.
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