CreatureData

Ghost ant

Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793)

Status not recordedbees wasps and ants

The ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum) is a species in the family Formicidae, order Hymenoptera.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the ghost ant

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the ghost ant live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the ghost ant as introduced in 82 countries, and flagged as invasive in 33 of them.

  1. Arubainvasive
  2. Australiainvasive
  3. Bahamasinvasive
  4. Canary Islandsinvasive
  5. Caribbean Netherlandsinvasive
  6. Chinainvasive
  7. Cook Islandsinvasive
  8. Costa Ricainvasive
  9. Curaçaoinvasive
  10. Dominicainvasive
  11. Dominican Republicinvasive
  12. Ecuadorinvasive
  13. Equatorial Guineainvasive
  14. Fijiinvasive
  15. French Polynesiainvasive
  16. Gaboninvasive
  17. Ghanainvasive
  18. Guyanainvasive
  19. Iraqinvasive
  20. Malaysiainvasive
  21. Mauritiusinvasive
  22. Nicaraguainvasive
  23. Palauinvasive
  24. Papua New Guineainvasive
Show 58 more countries
  1. Peruinvasive
  2. Samoainvasive
  3. Sint Maarteninvasive
  4. Somaliainvasive
  5. Tanzaniainvasive
  6. Tongainvasive
  7. United Arab Emiratesinvasive
  8. United Kingdominvasive
  9. Yemeninvasive
  10. Anguilla
  11. Austria
  12. Bahrain
  13. Bangladesh
  14. Barbados
  15. Belgium
  16. Belize
  17. Brazil
  18. Cambodia
  19. Cameroon
  20. Cape Verde
  21. Cayman Islands
  22. Colombia
  23. Comoros
  24. Cuba
  25. France
  26. French Guiana
  27. Gambia
  28. Grenada
  29. Guinea
  30. Haiti
  31. India
  32. Jamaica
  33. Japan
  34. Kenya
  35. Mayotte
  36. Mexico
  37. Montserrat
  38. Nigeria
  39. Niue
  40. Paraguay
  41. Romania
  42. Saudi Arabia
  43. Sierra Leone
  44. Solomon Islands
  45. Spain
  46. Sri Lanka
  47. St. Helena
  48. St. Kitts & Nevis
  49. St. Lucia
  50. St. Vincent & Grenadines
  51. Thailand
  52. Tokelau
  53. Trinidad & Tobago
  54. United States
  55. Vanuatu
  56. Venezuela
  57. Vietnam
  58. Wallis & Futuna

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the ghost ant endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the ghost ant classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderHymenoptera
  5. familyFormicidae
  6. genusTapinoma
  7. SpeciesTapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793)

Synonyms Formica domestica, Formica melanocephala, Formica nana, Formica wallacei, Lasius melanocephalus, Micromyrma melanocephalum, Myrmica melanocephala, Myrmica pellucida, Neoclystopsenella luffae, Tapinoma domesticum, Tapinoma jerdoni, Tapinoma luffae, Tapinoma melanocephalum, Tapinoma melanocephalum australe, Tapinoma melanocephalum australis, Tapinoma melanocephalum coronatum, Tapinoma melanocephalum malesianum, Tapinoma melanocephalum var. australis, Tapinoma melanocephalum var. coronatum, Tapinoma melanocephalum var. malesianum, Tapinoma nana, Tapinoma pellucida, Tapinoma wallacei

Other names and names in other languages (5)
  • Fourmi fantômeFrench
  • spøkelsesmaurNorwegian Bokmål
  • SpookdraaigatjeDutch
  • spökmyraSwedish
  • mindre husmyraSwedish

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the ghost ant

Other species in the same genus Tapinoma.

Coconut ant

Tapinoma sessile

FormicidaeNo free photo yet

Erratic ant

Tapinoma erraticum

FormicidaeNo free photo yet

CompareGhost ant vs Coconut antGhost ant vs Erratic antGhost ant vs Odorous tropical twig antGhost ant vs Tiny coconut ant

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the ghost ant an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the ghost ant as invasive in 33 countries, including Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Canary Islands and Caribbean Netherlands. It lists it as introduced in 82 in all.

What kind of animal is the ghost ant?

The ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum) belongs to the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/ghost-ant

MLA

“Ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/ghost-ant.

BibTeX
@misc{ghost_ant_2026,
  title = {Ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/ghost-ant},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}