Ant Quest
What is Ant Quest?
Ant Quest is a community science project that will help us better understand ant biodiversity in Southern California. In particular, we are working with community scientists to:
1) understand the relationship between patterns of land use in Southern California (landscaping, natural areas, housing, etc.) and the kinds of ants that are found in a particular place
2) learn about the relationship between native California ant species and those that have been introduced from other places
We’d like you to help us complete the first community science Ant Quest focusing on urban Southern California by finding ants, taking photos, and uploading them to the Ant Quest iNaturalist project or emailing them to us: ants@nhm.org.
Project Objectives
The question at the heart of this project is: What factors help determine where particular kinds of ants are found in Southern California? There are many kinds of ants in and around Los Angeles, and where they are found depends on many different habitat characteristics like the amount of water and the temperature in a particular location, the kinds of plants in an area, and the presence of other kinds of ants and other organisms that might interact with them. Scientists still don’t understand how all of these factors come together to determine which ants live where, and this is an opportunity for you to contribute to our understanding of these important little creatures!
Ants are crucial members of ecosystems across the world, playing important roles like moving seeds around, helping to build soils, and acting as predators and herbivores. Human activities have greatly shaped where ant species can be found today, as we have moved some species around and contributed to the decline of others. Still, we do not entirely understand where ants are found and why, but with the contributions of community scientists like you, we will be able to get closer to an answer!
How to Participate?
- Find ants: On a walk around your block, backyard garden, local library, school, or on a hike in a local park, look out for ants! You may find them under bushes, hidden in wood piles, between and under rocks or bricks, on tree bark, on plants, among leaves, along sidewalks, and in sandy areas.
- Take Pictures: Photograph the ants, and document when and where you found them (GPS or cross streets). When taking photos, consider that many ants are small and move rather quickly, so do your best to carefully get up-close and take a non-blurry photo.
- Submit Your Observations: Submit photos and supporting data (date, time, address/locality, and observational notes) by uploading them to the Ant Quest iNaturalist project or emailing them to us: ants@nhm.org.
What Happens Next?
Each ant observation you find will be identified, recorded in a database, and become valuable data contributing to a growing database of information useful for research, public policy decisions, and more. Your efforts will help us determine the distribution of ant species in greater Los Angeles, identify introduced species, determine which species are common versus rare, and much more!
Ant Quest Data
To view the most recent Ant Quest data, visit our project page on iNaturalist.
On the project page you will be able to view a map of observations that have been submitted, see who has contributed, how many contributions each person has made, and how many of the potential species in this area have been documented through Ant Quest.
