13 replies to this topic

[Works4TheGood]

1. Location of collection: Suburban State College, PA., USA

 

2. Date of collection: 10/21/17

3. Habitat of collection: Suburban driveway

4. Length: 8mm

5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture: Brown.  Very shiny.

 

6. Distinguishing characteristics:

8. Nest description: Unknown

 

9. Nuptial flight time and date:  Yesterday (10/21/17) afternoon.

 

Pictures:

http://www.formicult...37-unknown-ant/

[Bracchymyrmex]

Lasius parasite. Perhaps umbratus. 

[T.C.]

I'll go with Lasius umbratus.

[VoidElecent]

Lasius claviger

[Batspiderfish]

Lasius claviger

 

Agreed.

[Mettcollsuss]

Either claviger or umbratus. leaning towards claviger, though.

[Works4TheGood]

Ug.

[Works4TheGood]

Thanks to everyone who read this and especially to those who contributed to their identification. I never would have guessed Lasius, which is odd because I have had several different lasius species before.

I'm disappointed. It seems that half the queens I catch are parasites. It makes me wonder if some parasitic queens invade a nest only to find they're up against another parasitic queen that has already taken over the colony. What a wasted hunt, eh?

Switching topics, which of those pictures was most helpful in the identification process?

[VoidElecent]

Thanks to everyone who read this and especially to those who contributed to their identification. I never would have guessed Lasius, which is odd because I have had several different lasius species before.

I'm disappointed. It seems that half the queens I catch are parasites. It makes me wonder if some parasitic queens invade a nest only to find they're up against another parasitic queen that has already taken over the colony. What a wasted hunt, eh?

Switching topics, which of those pictures was most helpful in the identification process?

 

Parasitic queens (such as L. claviger, L. umbratus, L. latipes etc.) are usually much bulkier than fully claustral queens, and their gasters tend to be on the smaller side. Identifying a parasitic Lasius queen is a whole different ball game from identifying a fully claustral one.

 

Some queens are actually capable of parasitizing already parasitized colonies. For example, Lasius interjectus has been known to infiltrate colonies of Lasius claviger.

 

In general, I would say the more pictures the better. Usually it's hard to know exactly what angles you might want for a certain species, especially if you don't know what the species is, so it's worth taking as many as possible. I think the profile and head shots of the mandibles and from the top were the most useful in this case. 

 

BatSpiderfFish is definitely your go-to guy for social parasite related questions. He'd be great to talk to.

[Batspiderfish]

The photo showing off the profile of the petiole is important for distinguishing Lasius claviger from Lasius latipes, which does not always look like a land-lobster.

 

Lasius latipes has a blunt petiole node while L. claviger's is sharp.

[Connectimyrmex]

Yep, Lasius claviger. Lasius claviger always looks like Lasius umbratus, but is more stretched out.

[Works4TheGood]

Around here, L. latipes definitely looks distinctive, perhaps because around here they look like the "land lobster" that Bat mentioned. The queen in this post didn't even strike me as being a Lasius. I've been in this hobby for years, but IDing queens is not my strength. Sometimes I follow the local ID keys, but once they start asking questions like "are there small hairs on their eyeballs?", I just give up. I'm not gonna kill a queen just to see it under my microscope. The keys are designed to ID workers too, and so they can't take into consideration the time of the nuptial flight, which is probably pretty helpful in he queen-IDimg process. ... I'll stop rambling now!

[Works4TheGood]

So, changing discussion topics, what do social parasitic queens lack that causes them to die after a few days without host?

[Batspiderfish]

The ones that don't look like Lasius claviger sure look like Lasius latipes.