Our insect of the week for July 13, 2026 is the ant, Stigmatomma pallipes. [HYMENOPTERA: Formicidae] This species was described by the American naturalist, Samuel Haldeman in 1844. Fun fact about Mr. Haldeman – he once confided to a colleague that he never studied one branch of science more than a decade.

For those who know me, You know that I am passionate about insects in general, but I have a special interest in ants. I recently obtained an adapter which allows me to take better photographs of ants than I have been able to in the past so I plan to focus (yes that was a pun) on this group for a while. I believe it was Barry Bolton who once commented that if ants were the size of bulldogs, we would pay much more attention to them. I hope you enjoy this foray into the world of ants. All are found in central Illinois (although you may well walk past most without even recognizing they are present.

So, why an I starting with this ant – because it belongs to a group of ants with the common name “Dracula ants!” They get that name because the queen may drink the haemolymph of her larvae.

It is thought the main source of food for foraging workers is entipedes (Chilopoda), specifically geophilomorph centipedes. These are the skinny, fast moving centipedes one often encoutners in the soil, under fallen leaves, or in rotting wood. Colonies are relatively small (typically under 50 individuals).

This species is known from the following central Illinois counties (Peoria, Putnam, Sangamon, and Tazewell). The specimen shown in these photographs was collected in Peoria County. The image was photographed with an Olympus M-5 camera attached to a Wild M5A dissecting microscope). As you may suspect all these images are stacked from many individual photographs.

A lateral view of the ant is shown in the image below.