Are Tapinoma sessile polygynous?

Tapinoma sessile is a species of small ant that goes by the common names odorous house ant, sugar ant, stink ant, and coconut ant. Their colonies are polydomous (consist of multiple nests) and polygynous (contain multiple reproducing queens).

Where do Tapinoma sessile live?

Distribution. The odorous house ant, Tapinoma sessile (Say), is a native species that occurs throughout the United States. It ranges from Canada to Mexico but is rarely found in the southwestern desert areas.

What do Tapinoma sessile eat?

sessile, one of our more important house infesting ants, is capable of invading houses from outdoors, or nesting inside. Although the ants feed on a wide variety of household foods, such as raw and cooked meats, cooked vegetables, dairy products, fruit juices, and pastries, they appear to show a preference for sweets.

How many eggs does a female odorous house ant lay each day?

Odorous House Ant eggs have an incubation period from 11 to 26 days. Each colony will have several queens laying eggs, but each may deposit only one egg per day. The worker and the queens live for several years while males usually die a few days after mating and the mated females begin new colonies.

How does the Tapinoma sessile get its food?

Foragers collect food that is around the nest area and bring it back to the colony to share with the other ants. T. sessile has polydomous colonies, meaning that one colony has multiple nests. Because of this, T. sessile is very good at foraging for food when there is great variance in the distribution of resources.

Why are Tapinoma sessile ants difficult to remove?

They also appear highly tolerant to heat and cold. These ants are difficult to remove from a home after their colony has become well-established. When offered a choice of food sources, the ants preferred sugar and protein over lipids, and this preference persisted in all seasons.

How long does it take for a Tapinoma sessile to hatch?

The queens lay the eggs which incubate between 11–26 days. After hatching, the larval stage lasts between 13–29 days, and the pre-pupal and pupal stages last between 10–24 days.

How is the Tapinoma different from the Technomyrmex?

Technomyrmex and Tapinoma are separated in the female castes by the contrasting morphologies of their gastral apices. In Technomyrmex the sclerites of the gastral apex are unspecialised, except that the pygidium is small. Gastral tergite 5 is therefore in line with tergites 1 – 4 and as a result all five tergites are visible in dorsal view.