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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 26, 2010 19:25:27 GMT
This evening at 7pm Jen walked our little dog as usual after his meal. Just minutes of her going out of our front door, I heard her shouting for me to grab a camera and some collecting pots. Lasius flavus males were pouring out of the nests, followed quickly by hundreds of winged females. The time had arrived for a mass mating flight from at least 17 nests, all timed to coincide at once as winged flavus of both sexes flew into the air. It was very hot and humid, and about 25 minutes later there was not one winged ant left in sight, and it then rained very hard. We picked up 37 newly mated queens, and hundreds more filled the grass and paths all around us. Here are some pics of the ants just before the flights, as the workers were very excited by all the hype and activity
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shane
Ant Photographer
Ant Species Image Gatherer
Posts: 1,738
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Post by shane on Jul 26, 2010 19:47:39 GMT
Gtars Nice photo's too Like the glassy Church colour of there flight wings from the reflective light.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 27, 2010 6:16:51 GMT
What to do with them all is the thing now, as I have placed 12 of the new queens into test tubes but will have to sort out the last 25. Unlike Lasius niger, flavus queens will remain together a lot longer assisting each other raising new workers; and even when workers are born they don't kill off the weaker queens like niger workers do. I will happily send some of these new queens to any UK members for just £2 to cover the cost of postage and packing. So if anyone wants a couple, just send me a PM and we can sort it out
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Deleted
Hibernating
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2010 13:01:48 GMT
Not sure exactly where you live - but the Lasius niger colonies here were all swarming yesterday evening as well! I am in Chester in the North West. It would be interesting to know where the flights were taking place around the country. Did anyone else record flights on the 26th?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 27, 2010 13:30:42 GMT
Jen and I live in Chichester, West Sussex, down on the south coast of England. Lasius niger flew about 10 days ago down here, but the Lasius flavus didn't fly until yesterday. There is often a second flight from the flavus nests depending on whether they have more alates; but July is the main month for both species with less chance of any during August.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 28, 2010 9:48:02 GMT
I decide to let 5 of these new queens go into our garden, well away from where any Lasius niger nests are. I found 3 of the queens in test tubes had died overnight sadly, but rather than let them be wasted, I placed one in my M. ruginodis colony, another 1 in my Pheidole pallidula colony, and 1 in my Formica lemani colony. The "Rugs" and the "Feds" carried their prizes off very fast. A lemani worker sprayed formic acid over the dead queen to make sure it was dead, then proceeded to drag it around and lift it above her head as if to say "look what I've got", but she took ages to take the prey into the nest as she kept on missing the entrance hole (plastic tubing) leading up into the nest. Unlike the niger queens which laid eggs within the first 12 hours, my flavus queens have not done this, although they have settled down well in their various places of accommodation, so it shouldn't be long before they too begin to found little colonies
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