Use of common names for ant species or genera can be misleading at best or lead to misidentification at worst. I give two examples.
iRecord gives the whole genus of Formica the common name "Wood Ant". This is wrong. Although Formica includes the three wood ant species it also includes several others that are NOT wood ants. Formica fusca and F. lemani, to name but two, are clearly not wood ants. Please remove the name "Wood Ant" from the genus Formica.
The name "Red Ant" could be applied to many, but not all, of the Myrmica species. iRecord gives this name exclusively to M. rubra. This leads inexperienced recorders to record any red ant that they find as M. rubra even though it is more likely to be one of the other Myrmica species. Please remove the name "Red Ant" from Myrmica rubra.
Unusable Site
I am sorry but our community finds this site frankly unusable. We have a community site set up on the Activities area but time and time again I get complaints that the site is too cluncky, unituitive and unresponsive. One of my goup members tells me that he spent a very annoying morning swearing at his computer tring to put in a sighting of a little owl. And when he thought it had gone on he could not find the record. I sympathise with him. I have been trying to put records in for some time and I just get too frustrated. If you want people to enter date then a much better site needs to be developed.
Re Unusable Site - AEWarnes
This comment needs to be entered separately under its own heading, as It has nothing to do with the common names of ants.
Completely agree.