British Ant Species Nuptial Flights

[Wood~Ant]

I often find the question arises about the mating flight times of ants native to the UK, but have not made a thread to help cover this and so have answered each question individually.
So I thought it was time to help both novice members and our more experienced members who may not know when our British ant species have their nuptial flights? 

I must be perfectly honest and say that I don't know the mating times of some of our rarer ant species, but I do know most of the common species and when they fly, so this will answer most of your questions about the mating flight times in British ants. I must stress that this thread ONLY covers ants found in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and does not include Europe, as countries father north or south have different ants and mating flight times too. 

I have heard some bad information from other sources to say that a few of our British native ants fly as early as April or May. This is utter rubbish as our British weather is just too cold during our spring, and at this time winged ants (alates) are not mature enough. Young queens need to feed well before leaving the nest and flying away to found their own nest too. 

[Wood~Ant]

So what ants do fly and when here in Britain?

The very earliest flying time is mid June, and only then when it gets hot enough. Ants that fly in June are Formica rufa and Tetramorium caespitum. Both fly more often than not during the last 10 days of the month, only flying if the winds are mild and not blustery. 

The vast majority of our ants fly from mid July onward and into August. This includes most of the ants across the British Isles such as Formica species, Myrmica species, nearly all Lasius species, Leptothorax and Temnothorax; and Tapinoma. 
The main exception to this is Lasius alienus, which always flies in October and never earlier than late September. 
During a very bad spell of weather this species doesn't fly at all, and all alate adults are killed prior to winter with new sexually active colony members being produced the following year to fly again and found new nests.