8 replies to this topic

[The_Gaming-gate]

At first, I thought this queen was a niger clade Lasius species, but after closer examination I realized her color looked different in the light, than the dark skies I caught her in, and much closer to some Dorymyrmex species.

Location: Apopka, Florida, USA.
Time: The queen was caught on May, 15th, 2024, at ~7:45
Habitat: First queen was found on the sidewalk in front of my house, which is near a grassy field. Second (pictured) queen was walking between my wall and my lawn (essentially, a field) when she was ambushed by some Tapinoma sessile workers. I rescued the queen, and placed her in a test tube set-up.
Length: 6 - 7 millimeters.
Appearance: Queens are a grayish-brown, which I'd compare to the bark of a light pine tree. The gaster has tan-colored stripes, which are quite thick, although I do not have a measurement on them.
Behavior: Typical queen behavior, to sum it up. The queen (I only kept one, and released the other) was skitish and elusive when first found, but calmed down in a test-tube set-up, and refused to move off the cotton, or really move at all, just turning around to check out what's behind her at times.

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, May 15 2024 - 11:58 AM.

[ReignofRage]

The Lasius niger-clade is Palaerctic, not Nearctic. The "bands" on the gaster is the gastral terga separated due to being physogastric. Try using a brighter light to get better pictures.

[The_Gaming-gate]

The Lasius niger-clade is Palaerctic, not Nearctic. The "bands" on the gaster is the gastral terga separated due to being physogastric. Try using a brighter light to get better pictures.

Interesting, I thought L neoniger/americanus were in the niger clade, which is why I became confused.

[Mettcollsuss]

Brachymyrmex, either patagonicus or obscurior, though I'm not familiar enough with them to say which.

 

The Lasius niger-clade is Palaerctic, not Nearctic. The "bands" on the gaster is the gastral terga separated due to being physogastric. Try using a brighter light to get better pictures.

Interesting, I thought L neoniger/americanus were in the niger clade, which is why I became confused.

The niger clade sensu Boudinot contains the niger, brunneus, and fuliginosus groups — the former Lasius s. str. (minus pallitarsis) and Dendrolasius — so the niger clade does include the nearctic species. The species group situation is a bit messier though. Boudinot et al., 2022 places all the nearctic members of the former Lasius s. str. in the niger group, as a "Lasius nr. americanus" is placed as sister to L. niger. However, another phylogeny by Schär et al., 2022 includes multiple nearctic species (rather than only one in Boudinot et al., 2022), and it places most of them within the brunneus group.

[ReignofRage]

The niger clade sensu Boudinot contains the niger, brunneus, and fuliginosus groups — the former Lasius s. str. (minus pallitarsis) and Dendrolasius — so the niger clade does include the nearctic species. The species group situation is a bit messier though. Boudinot et al., 2022 places all the nearctic members of the former Lasius s. str. in the niger group, as a "Lasius nr. americanus" is placed as sister to L. niger. However, another phylogeny by Schär et al., 2022 includes multiple nearctic species (rather than only one in Boudinot et al., 2022), and it places most of them within the brunneus group.

 

It's a misunderstanding on my part from Schhär (2022) stating the niger-complex and Palaerctic together multiple times through the paper.

[The_Gaming-gate]

I caught some more of these queens.
More accurate photos:

Attached Images

• 
• 

[The_Gaming-gate]

Are the Brachymyrmex polygynous?

[SHmealer]

Bracymyrmex obscurior, yes they are polygynous

[The_Gaming-gate]

Thanks! I’ll have a supercolony soon! I do wish it was the native ‘Brachymyrmex bruchi’ though.