1. Location: Manhattan, NYC, on the floor in a stall of my gym's bathroom. 100+ feet from the nearest entry or exit. Lol
2. Date: 10/25.
3. Cold, hard gym tile. Jokes aside, the habitat outside the gym is urban with scattered green space.
4. Length: 7-8 mm.
5. Dark reddish brown body, with faintly orange brown legs.
6. One node petiole. Antennae lobed at the distal end, fine hairs present across both gaster and the rear/top of her head. Strikes me as having the general bauplan of a social parasite.
7. She was pretty active in the bag I brought her home in, but she settled right down once I put her in a test tube and is sitting still.
8. N/A.
9. Flight: I did not observe a flight. However, very light precipitation had begun by the point in the evening I caught her (~8 pm) and a substantial rainstorm is expected tonight.
10. Photos etc.: I could only get crappy photos, so here's a short video clip instead (hopefully it works).
I have my doubts that she could be mated given where she was collected, but perhaps she hitchhiked in on a gymgoer. Fingers crossed. If she is indeed a lasius parasite (L. claviger perhaps?), I'm gonna have to hunt down a wild Lasius colony, because I don't have a captive one to found her with.
Edited by TypeD, October 25 2021 - 7:17 PM.
