5 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Can someone list all the North American species of Lasius that are parasitic? Is it just the Acanthomyops subgenus?

[Batspiderfish]

And Chthonolasius! I think the only other parasitic Lasius subgenus is Dendrolasius, but that one is strictly "old-world."

Edit -- Austrolasius too (but again, not nearctic.)

Edited by Batspiderfish, June 19 2016 - 7:23 PM.

[dspdrew]

So would this be the list?

Lasius arizonicus
Lasius claviger
Lasius interjectus
Lasius latipes
Lasius murphyi
Lasius speculiventris
Lasius subumbratus
Lasius umbratus

[Batspiderfish]

As well as:

Lasius minutus

Lasius vestitus

Lasius nevadensis

Lasius atopus

Lasius humilis

Lasius subglaber

Lasius californicus

Lasius coloradensis

Lasius mexicanus

Lasius bureni

Lasius colei

Lasius creightoni

Lasius pogonogynus (a hybrid, technically)

Lasius occidentalis

Lasius plumopilosus

Lasius pubescens

I'm not sure if this list is fully revised, but that should cover it.

[dspdrew]

Those are all parasitic? I've looked up everything I can on about five of them, and couldn't find one reference to them being parasitic.
 
Edit: It looks like there is a picture of a Lasius bureni on AntWeb, and it looks parasitic, so I guess that's something. It seems like there would be a much more organized source for this information, considering how common social parasites are in this genus.

Edited by dspdrew, June 19 2016 - 10:11 PM.

[James C. Trager]

Finding the "smoking gun", i.e. the young mixed colonies, has not been accomplished for many of these species, but they are presumed to be parasitic because of their morphological features.

Some are known or thought to be parasitic on other parasites - hyperparasites - L. interjectus on L. claviger, L. minutus and Dendrolasius on Chthonolasius spp.