199 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

I caught these queen in an absolutely enormous nuptial where the alates in the air were partially blocking out the sun! As soon as a male attaches to a queen in mid air, the queen slowly flys to the ground. I missed a lot of it, due to the fact that I was in my bed with the AC cranked up, trying to cool a fever. I ended up with four queens. The colonies of this species are huge. Right outside the door of our RV, a colony swarmed up a rock, making it black, and the stump next to it. It was like a fountain of alates! I followed some queens with males until they hit the ground. I also found a dealate walking around near the massive nest. I assumed she just landed there. Hopefully these survive hibernation, as we are camping in the
Eastern Sierras, where there is still some snow on the mountains.

I think that this could be the Lasius nr. niger which seems to be only found in the Sierras. I would make sense, as the workers are fairly large, almost black, and have gigantic colonies. They also look very similar to Alex Wild's picture of them.

Edited by NickAnter, August 3 2021 - 8:18 PM.

[NickAnter]

Well, I caught five fore queens, so I have nine. Of the five, I put three in one tube, and two in one. I got these five of about 20 dealates under one rock. Also, I do not quite know when to start hibernation on them. I will post a screenshot of the average weather for each month near here. My guess is late September. This may sound early, but it is still getting into the 30s and 40s at night.

Edited by NickAnter, August 14 2019 - 6:42 AM.

[NickAnter]

I got some decent pictures. Maybe they will help with an ID. This is the best I can get with my S5, and them moving around.

.

Edited by NickAnter, August 15 2019 - 3:48 PM.

[NickAnter]

Hmm. So the queens look almost identical in terms of hair on the abdomen to L. crypticus, but the worker size of the wild colonies simply does not fit. The largest workers were about 4mm. Not like the 2mm crypticus. I am just baffled. I will take a dead queen out in hopes to get an ID via microscope. And they are definitely not Formica. The closest thing in size would be pallitarsis, but I have never heard of a dark brown to black pallitarsis. Also, I did see what looked to be pallitarsis at camp, and it was far lighter in color. I know that color is not a good way to ID, but Lasius seem to not be very color varying. I did get some more pics, so later, when my hone is charged, I will edit the post and put the pics in.

Edited by NickAnter, August 22 2019 - 2:40 PM.

[Lisberg]

Looks like L. neglectus, but i don't think they live wild in the US

[NickAnter]

Yeah definetly not L. neglectus.

[Lisberg]

Is tour statement based on location or looks?

I don't know many American types of lasius :¥

[NickAnter]

Both.

[NickAnter]

Hmm. This is interesting. One queen laid an egg. Not sure if she plans to raise workers before hibernation, or what. None of the others have eggs. I will update this next if more eggs are laid, or when I put them in hibernation, in October.

[NickAnter]

I know I said I wouldn't update this until more eggs were, laid, but I did take some mediocre macro pics. Here they are:

Edited by NickAnter, August 29 2019 - 10:15 AM.

[NickAnter]

I am starting to think that this is L. americanus, as they are only 8mm, upon further inspection.  And, apparently, in high altitudes, thy nest under stones, as pretty much all of the wild colonies were.  Also, the queen who laid that egg, laid another one.   Also, for the life of me, I can't find any erect  hairs on the scapes, which would prove that she is americanus.  Unless I simply am not zoomed in far enough.  How large do the colonies get?  Of course, crypticus also has the same features, so it is probably either one of those.

Edited by NickAnter, August 31 2019 - 2:52 PM.

[NickAnter]

Okay, I put a dead queen under a microscope, and found hair on the scapes. Would you call these hairs erect?:

[Kaelwizard]

Yes

[NickAnter]

Okay, I too think they are erect, but I wanted to make sure. That means it is either Lasius pallitarsis, neoniger, or niger. Neoniger has been found near the area, but never did I see a colony make a mound.

[Kaelwizard]

I have found a ton of L. neoniger colonies with mounds. At least I think they are neoniger.

[NickAnter]

I have narrowed it down to L. pallitarsis or L. neoniger. I can count 7 teeth on the mandible, and pallitarsis has 7. But normally it is hidden under the clypeus. This queen has a madible that overlaps the other, so no teeth are obscured. How many teeth does neoniger have? Oh, and the pattern of the teeth is: long tooth short tooth, so on, leaving the last 7th tooth as short.

[Kaelwizard]

I don’t know. I’m not great with IDs as I haven’t used my microscope to ID ants yet and I don’t know what to look for.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

 

Did you plan on keeping a pleometrophic colony?

[NickAnter]

Yes I am planning on keeping a pleometroic colony. They start in large groups in the wild.

[NickAnter]

They are in Hibernation. Because it put them in a little early, I will take them out a little early.  I plan to take them out mid-January.  I will update this when I take them out.