Gardener Ant

Gardener Ants are the name given to the native ants of Yuriba. Small and red, they seem to be a harvesting species of ants, likely carried to the island by debris or castoffs from passing ships and ending up on shore, establishing colonies and spreading.

Gardener Ants are, like most ants, omnivorous; while their preferred diet includes flower and tree seeds, they will also prey on small invertebrates. They tend to live in colonies wherever they can burrow out. Typically they will form small hills in soft soil, usually away from the coast to avoid tidal flooding. They are quite helpful with pollination and spreading seedlings from plants around, and have been known to drag seeds from one corner of the island to another to be food for future colonies.

The species is so named for their seed-carrying tendencies, fairly common to many species of ant. Sightings of isolated flowers tend often to be the result of seed dispersal by Gardener Ant. While childrens' tales suggest the ants may plant entire gardens, these stories are a prime example of an urban legend, and no such flower patches actually exist. The ants' seed dispersal is a byproduct of the insects' feeding habits, a process of carrying the seeds to their den, feasting on the lipid-rich elaiosome attached to the seed and then discarding the rest to grow where it will.