Coal Industry Impact on Ants of the Genus Formica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract

The peculiarities of the settlement of ants of the genus Formica have been studied at the areas affected by varying degreesof impact made by enterprises of surface (opencast mines) and underground (deep mines) coal hard mining. It has been revealed that Formica ants. str. are the most sensitive to any impact and in overwhelming cases disappear from the contaminated area. On the contrary, the representatives of Serviformica are more environmentally flexible, and are able to occupy areas with anaverage degree of contamination. However, the density of the settlement and the abundance remain low. After the cessation of coal mining near opencast mines, the recovery of myrmecofauna occurs more rapidly (7-10 years) than near deep mines (more than50 years). The higher the degree of contamination of the area, the lighter the colour of the ants. The proportion of insect larvae in the Formica rufa food sharply increases in the contaminated area.