11 replies to this topic

[klawfran3]

Massive nuptial flight today with queens crawling everywhere and males going nuts. I got about 30 queens, set up about 10 solitarily and the rest in groups of 2-4. I was wondering if this was Lasius flavus or Lasius neoniger as I'm not sure of the difference.

Golden hue on the gaster and back legs, no setae that I can see on it. about 1 cm- 1.5 depending on which ant (some are smaller others are bigger, possibly a different species?)

darker thorax, head, and 1st and 2nd pairs of legs. Wings were almost oar shaped too when folded over the back.

Any experts on these fellas, and are they both polygynous?

 

Edited by klawfran3, August 8 2017 - 8:42 PM.

[T.C.]

Lasius alienus ?

[klawfran3]

Lasius alienus ?

Definitely could be that too... If anyone's an expert could they weigh in?

[T.C.]

Lasius alienus ?

Definitely could be that too... If anyone's an expert could they weigh in?

It looks alot like lasius neoniger, but seems a little early for their flights?

[Nathant2131]

We would need good close ups of the scapes (to see the hair coverage) and mandibles (to tell if there is an offset basal tooth or not) to tell. Could be a few things. (Lasius neoniger, Lasius alienus, Lasius pallitarsis, Lasius flavus, Lasius nearcticus)

The smaller ones that you mentioned could be from the flavus group (L. flavus or L. nearcticus)
The bigger ones could be niger group (L. neoniger, L. alienus, L. pallitarsis)

The one pictured looks like niger group.

[Loops117]

This question stumped me. I had a whole slew of these queens. After comparing them in person and thinking they were all the same, i asked for an ID with a bunch of photos i posted. It was determined that i have L.neoniger. 5 months later, and half the tubes have dark nanitics, and the other half has high yellow nanitics.

 

Point being, this might be a hard one to ID without workers.

[Loops117]

Should also mention that this species prefers vertical tubes over horizontal. I along with others have had better success when the queen and brood can stay right on the cotton the entire time.

[Batspiderfish]

Being able to tell if there are erect hairs on the antennal scapes would be a start. No mixing up L. neoniger that wau

Edited by Batspiderfish, August 9 2017 - 5:32 AM.

[VoidElecent]

You may want to take a look at this guide if you have access to detailed magnification, it helped me a lot with my L. neoniger queen.

[klawfran3]

Should also mention that this species prefers vertical tubes over horizontal. I along with others have had better success when the queen and brood can stay right on the cotton the entire time.

Good to know, just oriented any of their test tubes vertically. Are they polygynous?

 

And I'll be working on getting better pics soon. If my phone doesn't have enough magnification I have a macro lens coming for it to use too.

 

I noticed she has a small patchy beard of setae under her head too, like a P. barbatus except much, MUCH less developed.

 

I don't have a microscope at the moment to use but hopefully these pictures with her mouth open let use see any basal teeth too. If it's still not enough give me about a week for the macro lens to arrive.

Edited by klawfran3, August 9 2017 - 7:01 AM.

[xTNxANTMANx]

I caught me 2 Lasius sp. queens last night and after some research, I'm going to follow this post lol. I'm not sure if I have L. flavus or L. neoniger. I plan on using my macro lens in just a bit to find out and get some pics as well for IDs

[Connectimyrmex]

I'm pretty sure she is Lasius flavus judging from the brown-green gaster.