4 replies to this topic

[Naturenut1233]

1. Location (on a map) of collection: Collected in Damariscotta Maine
2. Date of collection: August or September I believe
3. Habitat of collection: Small sandy lawn surrounded by mixed woods, fairly moist area, near lots of houses and pavement as well.
4. Length (from head to gaster): Queen is about 8 mm, Tiny little nanantic hatched last night and is just a hair over 2 mm.
5. Color, hue, pattern and texture: Queen is a deep brown with bands of lighter brown on her gaster. It's very swollen after hibernation and she is laying loads of eggs. The nanantic is a pale greenish yellow, almost transluscent. I imagine it will darken some with time but idk.
6. Distinguishing characteristics: Fast growth. Eggs to workers in about 6 weeks if memory is correct. Laid a pile of eggs, raised those to cocoons, then laid a bunch more. Expect more nanantics over the next week.
7. Distinguishing behavior: unflappable. Devote on taking care of brood. Not aggressive or anything.
9. Nuptial flight time and date:I believe it was late August when I found her but didn't write it down. Better records this year for sure.

After they settle into the new tube, I can try to get clear pics of the worker.

In the pics, you can barely see the little worker ant. It has large eyes for it's size, amazing greenish color but very very pale. Almost see through, will probably darken. Yellowish tint, lighter colored legs.


worker in right side of tube in above picture


worker again on right.


worker bottom left


worker bottom left

[VoidElecent]

It's a little difficult to see the worker, but based on your description she's either very very young or a member of the  L. flavus group. I'd give it some time, then report the coloration of the more mature nanitics.

 

At this point, here are some options:

 

L. neoniger group:

• Lasius neoniger: workers will be light brown with some shiny pubescence.
• Lasius pallitarsis:  workers will resemble L. neoniger, but will likely be slightly larger.
• Laisus alienus: workers will be darker, closer to grey or black.

L. flavus group:

• Laisus flavus
• Lasius nearcticus

I'm honestly not entirely sure how to differentiate the last two, I'm sure a more experienced member could help you with that. I think the safe thing to do now is to wait and see what color the mature nanitics become. L. flavus group workers will be a lighter yellow/gold in coloration.

 

Thank you for a nicely formatted identification thread!

[Naturenut1233]

I know she is smaller than my other lasius queens, of which I have two types at least and they are also laying eggs like crazy except for one that is parasitic. They are lighter colors though, more honey colored. I'm not entirely sure what they were but they did fly on labor day. Posted a video about them and was told they were Lasius niger or neoniger, I can't remember, will look it up. But anyways she is a lot smaller and her egg to worker time is faster and she is a darker color. I will be watching the baby and let you know what color she matures to.

[Naturenut1233]

So she has 11 workers now and they are all dark like her. All about 2 - 2.5 mm. Very fast and active. Avoided all protein thus far except fruit flies. Like sugar sources for the most part. The queens gaster, even though they have lots of food, is small again. She laid another large batch of eggs and it got small again, so she appears to lay in batches. I Got a few low quality pictures last night. When my budget allows I will get a decent macro lense or something. I'll try to post a few of the pictures in a minute or two. I was told by someone that they thought she was Lasius alienus. She is considerably smaller than my Lasius neoniger queens (which I'm pretty sure are ID'd right). I really do not know enough about ants but I'm slowly learning.

Edited by Naturenut1233, March 25 2018 - 12:18 PM.

[Naturenut1233]

Yes, they are terrible pictures.....