White-footed Ant

Appearance

''T. albipes'' is a small black ant some 2 to 4 mm long with the lower part of the limbs pale. Workers are chocolate-black with pale lower limbs, antennae with twelve segments and a flattened petiolar node. It differs from ''T. difficilis'' in lacking the pair of setae that that species has on the back of its head.

Distribution

The white-footed ant is native to the Indo-Pacific area, and has been introduced into Australia, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. It inhabits dry forests and open locations. Tent-like nests are made out of debris in trees, bushes, rotten logs, under rocks, in leaf litter and similar places. It also nests in man-made structures such as wall cavities and attics.

Habitat

The white-footed ant is native to the Indo-Pacific area, and has been introduced into Australia, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. It inhabits dry forests and open locations. Tent-like nests are made out of debris in trees, bushes, rotten logs, under rocks, in leaf litter and similar places. It also nests in man-made structures such as wall cavities and attics.The white-footed ant forages widely, entering dwellings and scavenging in kitchens and other rooms where it is considered a pest. It is largely arboreal and feeds on the honeydew of sap-sucking insects such as aphids, mealybugs, and scale insects. For this purpose it protects the insects and drives off predators, thereby encouraging the insects which may be agricultural pest species; the mealybug ''Dysmicoccus brevipes'' for example transmits pineapple wilt disease in Sri Lanka, and biological control of the mealybug has proved difficult because of the activities of the ant. Similarly in South Africa, the ant has encouraged outbreaks of the red scale insect , a major pest of citrus in the country.