8 replies to this topic

[GeorgeK]

Hey guys, i hope you can help me with identifying this queen i have. I found her on 19th of may in Northern Serbia (no mountains and hills if that means anything, mostly farmlands). She is black and has 3 yellow-brownish lines on her abdomen and is 12-13mm long. Workers are relatively small, but i think they also have yellow-brownish thorax.  What confuses me most is amount of first brood she had, usually i read that in first batch there are 5-7 workers, but in her first batch she already has 25-30 workers. On image you can see them swarming cotton head dipped in sugar water. Hope potato quality picture can help.

 

http://i.imgur.com/1nZt1yL.jpg?1

I can't find a way how to properly embed picture so heres the link of it, hope you guys don't mind

Edited by GeorgeK, July 3 2017 - 6:56 AM.

[Batspiderfish]

Liometopum sp.

[Jonathan21700]

Liometopum microcephalum. You are very lucky! They are found here in Bulgaria too but I still haven't seen them yet. Also you gave me an answer to which time of the year they fly as there is not much info about them. Nice!

[GeorgeK]

Thanks for fast answer guys! Can someone tell me maybe something more about this species or can i find more about it on the forums? Thanks in advance

[cpman]

Thanks for fast answer guys! Can someone tell me maybe something more about this species or can i find more about it on the forums? Thanks in advance

From what I know, this is a polymorphic, arboreal ant species that gets pretty large colonies.

This forum is mostly American, so I don't think you'll find much about this specific species here. However, other species in this genus do live in the US, and there are a handful of journals about them. I imagine this species is similar.

[Jonathan21700]

You can check dspdrew's journal about a North American species but it should be similar : http://www.formicult.../?hl=liometopum

[Batspiderfish]

Liometopum microcephalum would not be a siberian species. I'm thinking either L. sinense or L. orientale.

 

Edit // actually, it's really hard to say with the limited data available. A more precise location would probably help.

Edited by Batspiderfish, July 3 2017 - 7:53 AM.

[Jonathan21700]

He said he is from Serbia.

[Batspiderfish]

He said he is from Serbia.

 

Ahhh! Oops! I completely misread that! Sorry.

 

I kind of had my doubts that Liometopum would be a Northern Siberia genus, but antmaps painted a pretty large swath of Russia under the distribution of the two above-mentioned ants.

Edited by Batspiderfish, July 3 2017 - 7:59 AM.