4 replies to this topic

[Martialis]

I caught this queen a day before the fourth and am wanting my ID confirmed. Tetramorium sp. E, correct?

 

1. Suburb, backyard.

2. Late Midday, July 3rd.

3. Suburban lawn with moderate plant cover.

4. ~6-7mm

5. Somewhat velvety; dark brown to black.

6. She has two petioles.

7. N/A

8. N/A

9.

This is the habitat where she was collected. She flew into the  bucket of water at the bottom.

 

Here's the picture of the queen in question:

 

 

 

[VoidElecent]

Tetramorium Sp. E sounds correct, although 6-7 mm seems a little small. There may be a chance she is T. tsushimae, you might want to ask BMM on that one.

[Martialis]

Those don't really fly in their invasive range from what I've heard.
Those don't really fly in their invasive range from what I've heard.

[BMM]

The largest T. tsushimae queen I've found is right around 6.5mm. I read through a study from 2006 or 2008, can't recall exactly, and it had found that T. tsushimae was slowly expanding along the major highways out of St. Louis and were in central MO and southern IL. I'm not expert, but it doesn't seem unreasonable that you might find them in parts neighboring states like IN by now. That said, I can't actually differentiate my queens from T. sp E based on any feature other than size. I only know it's highly probably that they're T. tsushimae based on my location. Elsewhere they're probably more likely to be T. sp E. I'd double check the measurements.

[Martialis]

She is very similar in size to my T. sp.E, I may have underestimated. Whoops.
She is very similar in size to my T. sp.E, I may have underestimated. Whoops.