Formica Rufa on Belarus stamps 2002

Belarus Postal Administration issued the stamp series of ants. One stamp and one souvenir sheet on 2002. The species described is Formica rufa.

Formica rufa is highly polygynous and often re-adopts post-nuptial queens from its own mother colony, leading to old, multi gallery nests which may contain well over a hundred egg-producing females. These colonies can often measure several metres in height and diameter. Formica rufa is aggressively territorial, and will often attack and remove other ant species from the area.

Formica rufa, known as the southern wood ant or horse ant, is a boreal member of the Formica rufa group of ants, commonly found throughout much of Europe in both coniferous and broad-leaf broken woodland and parkland. Workers can measure 8–10 mm in length. Workers show considerable polymorphism and it has been noted that larger individuals forage further away from the nest.