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Post by cantona on Jun 8, 2015 9:12:46 GMT
we have seen two flying black queens (we were pretty sure they were L. niger as them and flavus are all we see around here) in the last week but they have been isolated incidents. My brother and I went all round the nearby area thinking that there may have been a flight kicking off early but couldn't find anything else. We live in Oxfordshire
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Post by Antkeeper on Jun 8, 2015 11:37:11 GMT
Surely Lasius niger and flavus would not not fly so early. Global warming?!!
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Post by chicken2012 on Jun 8, 2015 18:23:35 GMT
Here the L.flavus alates are still larvae and pupae right now in Cambridgeshire so yeah.
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Post by Miles on Jun 8, 2015 21:25:48 GMT
Any luck with getting additional pictures?
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 9, 2015 6:56:42 GMT
Might have to zoom in on the pics
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 9, 2015 7:41:21 GMT
I have to say she isn't a Tet queen as I thought she was from the original photo. As it is too soon for mating flights, as I live on the south coast in one of England's warmest counties and none of the local species are anywhere close to flying yet; and the only nests with alates are Formica rufa, then your queen was probably mated last year and hibernated. She may have been chased out of her nest site by other ants or predatory insects, and was searching for a new nest site when you found her?
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 9, 2015 7:56:00 GMT
Yer that's what I thought could be a possibility. Doesn't explain why I found a winged queen outside my house last week and a male in my kitchen. Something was definitely flying last week.
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Post by Miles on Jun 9, 2015 16:09:05 GMT
I had a feeling. The ant in the first image didn't look like a myrmicine, but a formicine.
I believe this is a Lasius queen, but not Lasius niger. What other species are native to the UK? Do you have any social parasites like Lasius umbratus?
While I do agree that this queen likely overwintered, I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility that she is from this year's flights. In the United States, ants can fly anywhere from February until October. I wouldn't be utterly surprised if there are at least a handful of species there that fly before your more prominent species do.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 9, 2015 16:16:51 GMT
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Post by Miles on Jun 9, 2015 17:04:32 GMT
From what I can tell, this appears to be Lasius umbratus. What do you think, Wood? I'm not entirely convinced. It could be a smaller, fully claustral Lasius species. Picture of species from BugGuide:
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 9, 2015 17:09:32 GMT
Does look very similar to the one in the above picture. Is a small queen though, I have no idea how big umbractus normally is?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 9, 2015 17:21:53 GMT
From what I can tell, this appears to be Lasius umbratus. What do you think, Wood? I'm not entirely convinced. It could be a smaller, fully claustral Lasius species. A strong contender I think? Myrm would know for sure as he keeps a colony of umbratus.
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 9, 2015 17:39:00 GMT
Well hopefully she will lay some eggs soon and will be able to find out. She has been in the formicarium since Sunday and placed in my loft. Have provided a water/sugar solution. Has yet to lay any eggs though and just seems to be wandering around the chambers. Is there anything I can do to encourage her to start laying. Do umbractus queens need workers or eggs to get them started?
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Post by Thebugman on Jun 9, 2015 17:47:35 GMT
They are social parasites, they need a niger colony/brood. If she has a square shaped head she will probably be umbratus. A great find, I would love this species, hoping to find a queen of these this summer!
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Post by jeoff82 on Jun 10, 2015 19:06:37 GMT
Update, just been up the loft to check on the mystery queen and can see she has laid some eggs. I'm away for a week now so prob won't be anymore more updates until then. Good news!
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