Formica fusca nuptial flight

[mattg]

I stumbled across Formica fusca during their nuptial flights the other day. I'd never seen a Formica male in the flesh before, but was attracted to all of these 'little wasps' flying around the grass. Once I realised what they were I started looking for queens too (only found a few). I watched them pair for ages and then collected the few queens I found and a load of males.

The really fascinating part is that I was able to induce them to pair again once I got home. I placed them in a plastic tank with mesh lid and placed them in a sunny spot in the garden and like magic they got frantic again and started pairing. It was really difficult to get decent photos since the whole process is a wrestling match and when the male is finally attached, the queens run off at speed dragging him behind them. Here's the best photo I have:

www.flickr.com/photos/13392514@N00/2795353745/

MattG

[Black Ant]

This must have been a really late flight, as Formica fusca has normally flown much earlier. Perhaps the cool wet weather held them back, although they did fly down in my area several weeks ago.

[mattg]

You're probably right about the weather. We went to Wyre Forest to look at the Wood ants today and there were F. fusca queens running around all over the place looking for somewhere to start a nest.

[shaunus]

I know, this summer's been awful!!

Due to the poor flying conditions, if there's any more humid days, what do you think the chances are there will be some more slights of various species? I'm pretty sure the nigers in my area have got some more to give...

[Wood~Ant]

It is just possible that any late mating flights may occur in September, but most nests will have left it too late and will probably end up either killing off their alates (males especially), or if they don't fly within the next 3 weeks, then they may keep them over winter in the nest until next year.

Young unmated queens will survive better in the parent nest, but if they do manage to fly and mate, then it will be hard for them to lay eggs fast enough and raise them into workers before the onset of winter.
It is not unusual for a colony to sacrifice its next generation of queens if bad conditions happen to stop the nuptial flights. If a young queen can hibernate, and then lay eggs the following spring, she may found a colony; but if she is alone, she may use up her reserves during the winter months. Either she will die during this time, or be too weak to feed her larvae, as the faster a queen has workers to help out and forage for food, the better her chances of survival.

September has started off cold and wet, even here in Southern England. So it is looking rather bleak for many young Lasius females who haven't flown so far.
A few of the hardier species of UK ants will fly as late as October, but most British ants have had theirs already assuming that weather conditions permitted them to do so.

To quote from Dr. Brian's book Ants}
"Lasius alienus is one of the latest and may not fly until October in bad years, in fact, quite commonly here, the sexuals fail to fly at all and are killed in the nest."
So that really does show how a bad summer can affect the numbers of new queens, and the ant population as a whole.