# Hormiga cosechadora

*Pogonomyrmex spp.*

**Confianza en la identificación:** Identificable con cuidado

## Cómo reconocerla

- Large at 5 to 10 mm, red to reddish-brown, with a conspicuous fringe of long hairs beneath the head forming a beard-like structure called a psammophore.
- Nests are surrounded by a cleared, vegetation-free disc of bare ground, often with a gravel-covered surface and a single obvious entrance.
- Workers carry seeds along well-defined foraging trails radiating from the nest.

## Qué rastros deja

- A distinctly bare circular clearing around the nest entrance, unlike the fire ant's vegetated dome.
- Seed husks accumulated near the entrance.

## Por qué persiste una infestación

Seed-harvesting ants of open arid ground. They sting painfully when the nest is disturbed but are not building-invading pests, and several species are ecologically important — including as the primary food of the threatened Texas horned lizard.


## Dónde se encuentra

Western and southwestern United States, extending into the Great Plains.

## Qué la previene

- Site play areas and paths away from established nests rather than removing colonies that pose no structural threat.

## Se confunde con

- **Hormiga roja de fuego** (*Solenopsis invicta*) — Reddish-brown head and thorax with a darker abdomen, and workers of clearly varying sizes within one colony.

**Verdict:** monitor-and-assess. Rarely a structural or indoor pest, and ecologically valuable; identification usually ends the question.

Source: https://againstpest.shop/es/identificar/hormigas/hormiga-cosechadora/