Ant Hill Wood

So I welcome you as visitor number  to my Ant Hill Wood.

Please join our excellent Ant Hill World UK forum which is run by my wife, and has over 870 members around the world. I am also on the forum in an advisary capacity to answer  ant hunting related questions, and help with British ant species in general. 

I live in the West Sussex county town of Chichester, which is actually classed as a Cathedral City, due to the fact that it has a Norman Cathedral which was built in the year 1075AD, but was not consecrated until 1108AD by Bishop Luffa. Chichester is situated on the South Coast of England and was a Roman town of some importance, as Fishbourne Roman Palace is just nearby. It is about a 3 mile walk from my home to the South Downs, which is a formation of chalk and flint hills stretching from Eastbourne in East Sussex, to Winchester in Hampshire to the West, which again is a Cathedral City and the old capital town of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex. Before coming here I have lived in many lovely parts of England; but perhaps my favourite area was Hereford & Worcester where I walked the beautiful Malvern Hills and first discovered the wood ant species Formica rufa, an ant which has remained a firm favourite of mine from when I first found it in 1978, right up to the present day!

This is me in the photo below, not hunting ants; but enjoying some local sea air.  

 These next 2 photos show typical nest mounds made by the wood ant Formica rufa. They were taken by myself while out with my wife, who was making a video of this ant species.

 For further enjoyment of this little adventure of ours, please view my Ant Video page, where you'll find all our new ant videos.

I hope you will enjoy this ant site of mine and take delight in the information to be found herein, which although it is mainly intended for the novice ant lover and is not meant to be an in-depth study of Myrmecology (The study of ants); I am sure it will be of interest to all who browse through its pages and enjoy the site. 

Ant photos placed on this site have been taken by myself, or my wife; unless otherwise stated, where they will have been credited to the individual photographer who took them.

The above photo of my Messor barbarus was taken by my wife, and you can see the major worker sitting on the right wing of the horse fly. (Photo taken on August 7th, 2007)

Cameras used by us to obtain all of our own ant pictures are as follows. Fuji Finepix S602zoom and Finepix S9500, Minolta Dimage Z1; and Jenny is now using a Samsung Pro 815, which is a digital hybrid SLR. This gives good close up shots due to its high resolution lens. 

Contacting Me

I can be Emailed at the address below, although I do reserve the right not to reply if I consider your mail to be inappropriate or offensive. Please remember this prior to contacting me, and send your mail for the attention of Wood Ant. Thanks!

This site is fondly dedicated to my much loved and sadly missed dear departed father, who by getting me to help him in his garden lead me to the study of all kinds of insect life, and the eventual study and keeping of ants; and also to my lovely wife Jenny who has developed a keen interest in ants over the years of our marriage.

I thank my parents for allowing me to keep ants inside their home and release ants into their garden, and Jenny for putting up with all the ants I have kept in our spare bedroom over the years we have been together.

My thanks also go out to all of you ant lovers around the world who may visit this ant site of mine, as your interest and good wishes that some of you have expressed in your emails to me about the site are very much appreciated.

I would also like to extend a very big thanks, to all the members of Ant Hill World who gave their kind permission for me to use their ant photos. In particular, I'd like to thank my very good friend Heath Cope; as if he had not joined our thriving little ant community, I would never have got to know such a nice guy who takes such great ant photos! And not forgetting Tom; who lives in Somerset, for getting some of the most truly remarkable close up shots of ants that I've had the privilege to show on my site!

I am sorry I can't mention all you guys who have given your consent to use your photos by name, but you know you all have my gratitude for allowing me to use some really superb material, as your photos help to make this site on ants come alive for people everywhere who are into studying the fascinating world of ants.

 It is due to the guys from as far away as Australia, to as close to home as France and other parts of Europe; and not forgetting my many friends across the "big pond" in the United States of America, plus of course the guys here in the United Kingdom, that many of the excellent close up photos of different ant species appear on this Ant Hill site of mine.

A very big thank you goes to a lovely lady and good friend of my wife and myself, Sue York who lives in North Wales. Thanks to Sue for the lovely ant illustrations that appear on my "Honey the Ant" stories; and Sue is busy preparing more of these great pics to be added to my stories later. Cheers Sue for your great artwork. 

Many thanks to everyone for your contributions to this site, you're simply the best!!