The Red Wood Ant, also known as the "Formica Ant", is the dominant species of ant in Europe and Asia. Although they are on the conservation list in areas of Great Britain, they are not generally considered an endangered species. There are several different Red Wood Ant species known by their scientific names as "Formica aquilonia", "Formica lugubris", "Formica exsecta", "Formica rufa", "Formica polyctina" and "Formica sanguinea".

Instead of being designated as individuals, with the exception of the queen, Red Wood Ants are usually considered by colony. One colony can consist of as many as half a million individuals, but is still generally considered one life form. The Red Wood Ant, "Formica rufa", often forms communes in the United States of a few to over twenty in dependant nests. Collectively the population of communes can reach several million workers and a few hundred Queens. On the continent the closely related F. polyctina is much more locally abundant, has many thousands of Queens in the same nests and their communes contain ants too numerous to count. Red Wood Ants are primarily found in Europe and Asia, with a distribution as far North as Scandinavia, south to Italy and west to Russia. Formica Sanguinea can also be found in Japan, China and Korea. Formica sanguinea, is by far one of the most intelligent insects alive today and typically enslaves smaller Formica species such as the Negro ant, Formica fusca and its relatives e.g. Formica cumnnicularia. F. sanguinea is known to attack and plunder large and aggressive rufa nests. Red Wood Ants are omnivorous, getting food both by foraging and by killing other insects. Their main source of sugar is the honeydew from aphids, with which they have a symbiotic relationship. The ants 'milk' the aphids for their honey, which is the aphids' waste product. In turn, the ants protect the aphids from other insects. Besides the sugar from the aphids, Wood Ants feed also on insects, including caterpillars and flies. They are also scavengers and are the most likely culprit as picnic pests. Wood Ants' nests look like a dome-shaped pile of pine needles. They can be over a meter high and two meters wide. The dome is made like a thatched roof and sheds water effectively. The nest is often built over a dying tree stump, which provides heat. Inside the nest and underground, are a series of chambers and galleries. There are various castes of ants, including workers whose job it is to find food, building the nest or caring for the eggs, larvae and pupae. The workers are all females. In the spring, the queen gives birth to winged males and queens. On warm evenings, hundreds of the sexually mature individuals mate in the air. The young queens then either return to the home nest or start their own colony, usually quite close to the home colony. One major problem for Wood Ants is the Slavemaker Ant. A fertilized Slavemaker queen enters the nest of another species of Wood Ant, kills the queen and makes the workers care for her and her brood. The original colony eventually dies out, as the queen is dead and can no longer produce more.

With an average length of one and a half a centimeter to one centimeter, Wood Ants are moderate in size. They have a red thorax, black abdomen and red and black head. The four different species can be told apart by differences in the head. The queens are larger then the workers and average around 12 millimeters.

Various species of Red Wood Ants are included on lists of threatened animals on the British Isles. Formica aquilonia and Formica lububis are designated as low risk on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, and Formica exsecta is considered highly endangered, according to the UK's Red List.

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