Southern wood ants

I have never photographed an ant before - I fear this may be the start of a new interest.  I met these in Harlestone Firs, a place I haven't been to for 50 years.  When I was very young it was somewhere I visited frequently for walks and bike rides and I remember from then the giant anthills under the fir trees.

This is the Southern Wood Ant, Formica rufa, also known as the Red Wood Ant.  Last week the anthill was covered with dead leaves and was mostly dormant but I found three worker ants wandering about the surface.  Probably because it wasn't very warm, they didn't move very quickly and paused frequently, which was a help in taking the photos.

Ants are the most highly evolved of the Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, bees and ants).  Formica ants are polygynous (with up to 100 queens in one colony) and with 100,000 - 400,000 workers in one hill.  They eat mostly honeydew from aphids but will also prey on caterpillars and spiders. Unlike honey bees, whose colonies remain active all winter with honey stores, I read that ants hibernate in winter and the colonies are dormant.  I presume they become active again once there is food available.  I plan to revisit these in the spring to see what they are up to and to take more photos.

Also on the anthill were a Devil's Coach-horse (Ocypus olens), which declined a photo, and a common pill millipede (Glomeris marginata) which I don't think I have ever seen before.  Despite being a millipede it has only 36 legs, although this one wasn't prepared to show any of them.