Bug card No. 0884 of 1,500
Maricopa harvester ant
Pogonomyrmex maricopa
The Maricopa harvester ant lives in the sandy, rocky deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico. It builds mounds with little rocks and gravel.
Lives in
Deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico
What does it eat?
Harvester ants gather seeds, and this one also drags dead insects down into its nest.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Maricopa harvester ant about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
In sand dunes it builds a hard cap of chalky cement on its nest, so the wind cannot blow it away.
2
By carrying dead insects underground it makes the soil better for plants.
you asked
Most asked questions about Maricopa harvester ant
?Where does the Maricopa harvester ant live?
In the deserts of Arizona and nearby states, and in northern Mexico.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pogonomyrmex maricopa
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Pogonomyrmex maricopa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by AntWeb.org. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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