A Population Study of the Ants Myrmica sabuleti and Myrmica scabrinodis Living at Two Sites in the South of England. II. Effect of Above-Nest Vegetation

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Abstract
Myrmica nests in well-grazed grassland are not readily visible and it was assumed that there would be few detectable differences in the above-nest flora compared to the general. Above-nest vegetation was measured at 2 well-grazed sites where the nests were subsequently excavated. The data for these nest populations are published elsewwhere. Canonical variate analysis showed that there were significant differences between the flora above Myrmica nests compared to the controls. Differences between different sizes of colony could be detected. It is the physical structure of the vegetation that is important to the ants, probably because of the shading effect of the vegetation. The effect of isolation and shading upon the success of Myrmica colonies is discussed.