Lasius umbratus 2019

[TenebrousNova]

I've always wanted to succeed with a parasitic Lasius species but my attempts at starting with a lone queen and some host workers all ended in failure. So I was pleased to find this nice colony for sale on mierenspecialist.nl, an ant store in the Netherlands that I hadn't heard of before. They arrived quickly and in one piece. They also arrived in a rather cute little nest.



There's over 40 workers in total. Half of them are the parasitic L. umbratus workers, which are yellow/orange in colour, and the other half is made up of L. niger. The niger workers, having adopted the umbratus queen, would have also acquired her scent and therefore get along fine with the umbratus workers. 

There's no eggs or pupae that I can see at the moment, but there's a few small piles of larvae. 



Queen:


As always, comments and feedback are welcome!

[Wood~Ant]

Lovely colony. Is there any way you can hydrate the nest?

[TenebrousNova]

Oct 31, 2019 17:40:03 GMT Wood~Ant said:

Lovely colony. Is there any way you can hydrate the nest?

I asked Tim about that, here's his response:

"The formicarium is designed is such way that you don't need to hydrate it.

I have done several tests and they will remain with enough moisture for at least 3 to 5 years. By that time the colony should be big enough to create their own micro climate if they are provided sufficient water / sugarwater in the feeding area."

The colony has not yet gone for the sugar water, but they've taken a fruit fly into the nest and as I type this, an umbratus worker is attempting to pull another one over to the entrance.

[TenebrousNova]

Today, the colony took their first cricket! I half expected them to use the host niger workers for most of the "dangerous" foraging activities but the umbratus workers seem to do most of it.