# Yellow-footed Ant

*Nylanderia flavipes*

Like other 'crazy ants', they run in erratic, jerky loops instead of straight lines when searching for food or when alarmed.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Arthropoda › Insecta › Hymenoptera › Formicidae › Nylanderia
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** forest
- **Habitat:** Deciduous and mixed forests, nesting in leaf litter, rotting logs, and under stones.
- **Diet:** Omnivorous, feeding on honeydew from aphids, dead insects, nectar, and plant sap.
- **Range:** Japan, China, Korean Peninsula, United States
- **Size:** Workers are 2.0 to 2.5 mm; queens are larger, around 4.5 to 5.0 mm.
- **Lifespan:** Workers live 6 to 12 months; queens can live up to several years.
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Habitat fragmentation, heavy pesticide use in urban-adjacent forests, and competition with larger invasive ant species.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. Yellow-footed ants are entirely safe to observe closely. They do not possess a functional sting. If they crawl on you, simply brush them off gently. No medical action is needed.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/fb4686a9-815c-48f4-8474-4a8075a29c28
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/372712

- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/96751126/medium.jpg (Jonghyun Park, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.