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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 23, 2011 6:51:19 GMT
For the benefit of all our members, no matter what country or continent they live in, I thought it would be a nice idea to gather information on the mating flights of any ant species they might see. Even if you go on holiday to somewhere outside of your own country and see ants flying, if you know, or think you know what species/genera they are, or could be, then we would love to hear about it So, wherever you are in the world, if you see a mating flight of ants, please do post about it here
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Post by Blem12 on Jul 24, 2011 19:28:15 GMT
Good afternoon,
Lasius niger:
- Location: South east of England. - Time: 4:00 - 7:00 pm.
Lasius flavus:
- Location: South east of England. - Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm.
As a result I have caught 10 Lasius flavus queens and will possibly keep a journal on them.
Thanks,
Blem12.
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Post by Blem12 on Sept 3, 2011 16:07:01 GMT
Good afternoon, Myrmica rubra/ruginodis:- Location: South East of England. - Area: Meadow. - Time: 5:30- 6:30 pm, yesterday. Temnothorax nylanderi:- Location: South East of England. - Area: Forest floor amongst the small pieces of rotting wood and leaf litter. - Time: 4:30 - 5:25 pm, yesterday. As a result I caught 6 newly mated Myrmica rubra/ruginodis queens which were easy to find unlike the Temnothorax queens as they were very hard to spot as many of them were under the leaf litter on the ground but I successfully managed to obtain 9 Temnothorax nylanderi queens. Best regards, Blem12.
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Post by Blem12 on Jul 22, 2012 6:17:30 GMT
Good morning,
Lasius niger flights have started!
Lasius niger
- Location: South east of England. - Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
On Friday, it had been pouring rain so I decided to check the Met and saw that there would be slightly better weather the next day, which was yesterday. I decided to go fishing but brought my pooter just in case.
After having a very nice fishing session (2 carp, 3 bream and a few roach) I was off, still looking for any signs of possible flights. Lo and behold! There were hundreds of drones and virgin queens flying high in the sky! The nuptials had began! So I started searching for newly fertilised queen with my old trusty pooter collecting 5 queens.
Although the nuptial flights had started, once I arrived at my house (different area from fishing) I could not see any positive signs of any flights actually taking place other than a few male alates wandering around.
Thanks, Blem12.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 22, 2012 8:24:13 GMT
Nice sighting Blem, as I am still waiting for any Lasius to fly down here in Sussex; but Jen has seen a lot of fluffed up L. flavus nests over the past 2 days which is always a very good sign, and as today is warm and sunny we should start to see both flavus and niger flying over the next few days all being well. I will try and keep my eyes on the local Myrmica nests too, as M. rubra fly in late July and early August down here. So with the promised heatwave on Monday and Tuesday we should get lucky.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 22, 2012 9:21:02 GMT
There was a small Lasius niger flight at approximately 4pm yesterday, at the nearby shoreline (Portsmouth). I am visiting Portchester today, I'll be sure to look out for any alates...of course, bringing a test tube.
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shane
Ant Photographer
Ant Species Image Gatherer
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Post by shane on Jul 22, 2012 17:37:39 GMT
Lasius niger flights started around 5:15pm and still going at 6:30pm as I type this and thats South east of England. But not as many as last year so some nests have started letting there new queens and drones go this after noon.
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Post by batspiderfish on Jul 23, 2012 1:42:54 GMT
In Madison, Maine, United States, 2012, recorded as of June 1st:
Lasius cf. minutus, Lasius umbratus, Formica cf. fusca, Myrmica sp. on June 1st
Lasius umbratus, Camponotus novaeboracensis and Camponotus pennsylvanicus with scattered nuptial flights between June and July
Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Formica aserva, Formica subintegra, Lasius umbratus, Lasius subumbratus, Tapinoma sessile on July 12th
Formica glacialis, Formica subsericea, Formica aserva, Formica subintegra on July 25th
Formica glacialis, Formica subsericea, Formica aserva, Formica subintegra on July 30th
Formica cf. integra, Formica subsericea, Lasius alienus, Lasius subumbratus on August 2nd
Aphaenogaster sp., Formica glacialis on August 3rd
Brachymyrmex depilis, Formica subsericea, Formica glacialis, Lasius neoniger, Lasius pallitarsis, Lasius subumbratus, Myrmica sp. on August 13th.
In Lovell, Maine, United States, 2012, recorded as of August 19th:
Formica neogagates on August 20th
In Portland/South Portland, Maine, United States, 2012, recorded as of August 31st:
Lasius neoniger, Lasius nearcticus on August 31st
Lasius neoniger, Lasius nearcticus, Lasius umbratus, Lasius latipes, Brachymyrmex depilis, Camponotus pennsylvanicus (wow!), Myrmica sp. on September 7th
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 24, 2012 18:55:03 GMT
Lasius flavus have started flying by our garden gate, and so far Jen has caught 2 Lasius niger queens and 1 Lasius flavus. Flights have been very sporadic so far, and there are many nests which are still to fly which will probably happen over the next 3 days.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 24, 2012 19:09:43 GMT
20:07hrs. As I type this there are hundreds of Lasius flavus flying just in front of our home, as several large nests are releasing their alate males and females all at once.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Aug 17, 2012 18:29:26 GMT
I was alerted less than an hour ago to a nuptial flight in the garden. There were Lasius niger queens running around as I expected. More importantly, there were loads of Lasius flavus queens, seven of which I will now keep.
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Post by bobdol on Aug 19, 2012 10:12:45 GMT
There was a massive flight of Lasius flavus last night as well as a big Myrmica flight and a smaller Lasius umbratus flight.
Lots of new queens for me:)!
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Post by Zarbi on Aug 19, 2012 10:23:23 GMT
There was a massive flight of Lasius flavus last night as well as a big Myrmica flight and a smaller Lasius umbratus flight. Lots of new queens for me:)! Will you be selling any umbratus queens?
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Post by bobdol on Aug 19, 2012 11:57:41 GMT
Sadly I only found the single Lasius umbratus queen. It was after about 3 hours straight of looking for queens. I guess it shows how rare this species is in Britain:(. I will probably be keeping her myself. I may be able to find more and I have high hopes for Lasius fuliginosus queens though as this species is a lot more common in my area... If I catch more than one than I will definatley be selling the excess queens.
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Post by batspiderfish on Aug 19, 2012 12:26:45 GMT
Sadly I only found the single Lasius umbratus queen. It was after about 3 hours straight of looking for queens. I guess it shows how rare this species is in Britain:(. I will probably be keeping her myself. I may be able to find more and I have high hopes for Lasius fuliginosus queens though as this species is a lot more common in my area... If I catch more than one than I will definatley be selling the excess queens. Gotta get them to found a colony, first. I don't think you can sell these without host workers. queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=behave&thread=5727&page=1Nice find! I've been waiting for you guys to turn up some social parasites, although it is true that L. umbratus is way less common in Europe than in North America.
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