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[AnthonyP163]

Yesterday, I checked my Lasius worker specimens. Three specimens that I had thought of as Lasius neoniger  keyed out to be Lasius crypticus. The species are so similar that I used a microscope to identify them. I then looked at their distribution on antmaps.org. 

 

 

The above picture shows that they obviously are in most of those white states, but likely not documented. Confusion with the more common L. neoniger is likely the reason. I caught two queens of this species during a flight on Sept. 1st, which held mostly L. brevicornis and L. neoniger, but I caught the Lasius crypticus queens right as they landed. L. crypticus is so rare that I have never found a queen wandering the ground, I always have to see them flying first. I encourage anyone from the United States to make an attempt at identifying Lasius and figuring out if they're L. crypticus or not. 

 

I figured mine out by using these antwiki keys: 

 

http://www.antwiki.o...maxillary_palpi

 

http://www.antwiki.o..._Lasius_Species

 

I noticed my specimens had the setae on their antennae pushed down, and had low amounts of setae on their legs. This is unlike L. neoniger and like L. crypticus. 

 

Here are some pictures of one of the specimens: