16 replies to this topic

[Pumpkin_Loves_Ants]

I gave my Lasius colony their first small drop of raw honey! I put it in and 20 minutes later half the colony is out trying to get a fresh drink. This was super strange as they are usually very timid and only a couple workers forage and return food at a time. It may be due to the fact that it was right near their nest entrance but maybe they just enjoy it that much!

Edited by Pumpkin_Loves_Ants, October 20 2019 - 12:40 PM.

[Kalidas]

Oh awesome! They look so happy!

[TennesseeAnts]

What species of Lasius?

[Kalidas]

Can't seem to figure out how to delete this lol. So I'll ask a question

How long did it take them to finish it?

Edited by Kalidas, October 20 2019 - 12:51 PM.

[Pumpkin_Loves_Ants]

What species of Lasius?

Ah, I was hoping somebody would ask. I believe they are Neoniger but I am not 100% sure and will most likely get them IDed soon. If you noticed some of the workers are much larger with bigger gasters and heads good for you! Those are from an experiment where I brood boosted with brood from a Lasius Latipes colony and for the most part, it was successful.

[BADANT]

Glad you got such good results, and shared


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[Pumpkin_Loves_Ants]

Can't seem to figure out how to delete this lol. So I'll ask a question

How long did it take them to finish it?

It took them around 25ish minutes which is crazy considering their colony size. They have around 25-30 workers and finished that big drop like it was nothing!

[Antennal_Scrobe]

I believe they are Lasius brevicornis.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

 

What species of Lasius?

Ah, I was hoping somebody would ask. I believe they are Neoniger but I am not 100% sure and will most likely get them IDed soon. If you noticed some of the workers are much larger with bigger gasters and heads good for you! Those are from an experiment where I brood boosted with brood from a Lasius Latipes colony and for the most part, it was successful.

 

My old Camponotous Colony and my current largest Camponotous colony both finished a huge drop of honey in five minutes. Straight up, I got a stop watch and timed them. The queen is escorted to the honey and they all drink up. 

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I believe they are Lasius brevicornis.

Lasius Neoniger are darker in color, and appear to be a light to dark brown. Those are like a highlighter yellow color wise. Also, Lasius Neoniger don't have that much variation is size. The medians are 5mm and nanitics are 3 for L. Neoniger, however, and this is just me eyeing it, the bigger worker is 3 mm bigger than the smaller worker. I also believe it is Lasius brevicornis because of the color

because of the color

Edited by Da_NewAntOnTheBlock, October 20 2019 - 1:55 PM.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

The size difference is because he brood boosted them from what turned out to be an acanthomyops species.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

The size difference is because he brood boosted them from what turned out to be an acanthomyops species.

oh, that would explain it. Lasius isn't polymorphic, so they typically don't have very noticeable size differences. Though this species is very beautiful, with the right mix of yellow and brown 

[Serafine]

They do. Almost all ants have workers of different sizes (except the "primitive" ones like ponerines or Myrmecia where you can't really see the size variations). Lasius workers generally are between 3mm and 5mm long which means the larger workers (typically foragers of older colonies) are almost double the size of the smaller ones.

Some Formica species are even more extreme with their largest workers being almost three times the size of their smallest ones. Their proportions are still almost the same though so they're not polymorphic as polymorphism doesn't have anything to do with size but with body part proportions (a few Formica are slightly polymorphic but most aren't) - theoretically you could have polymorphic ants with workers that are all the exact same size.

Edited by Serafine, October 20 2019 - 10:38 PM.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Yeah, I kind of forgot how polymorphism works , so thanks for the refresher! This just shows I still have a lot to learn

[Pumpkin_Loves_Ants]

On a sort of related note, I recorded my new Temnothorax longispinosus colony (Thank you Antennal_Scrobe!) drinking some syrup. I decided to record two videos since the first was of lower quality and I was shaking the camera.

 

First Video:

 

Second Video:

[Antennal_Scrobe]

I love these videos. Could you take one of the Lasius in their nest?

[Kaelwizard]

I have a queenless Lasius aphidicola colony. This species has very similar coloring to yours but yours isn’t parasitic right?