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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 11, 2011 16:28:41 GMT
Jenant and I have just witnessed a massive nuptial flight of Lasius flavus as 7 local nests put out thousands of winged males and female. We have collected 13 newly mated flavus queens, although L. niger was also flying earlier so we had to be careful not to pick up mated niger queens by mistake; but the smaller queens with golden underbodies are definitely flavus. Jen has taken photos and done a video which will follow later  |
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Post by Blem12 on Jul 11, 2011 16:32:19 GMT
 Jenant and I have just witnessed a massive nuptial flight of Lasius flavus as 7 local nests put out thousands of winged males and female. We have collected 13 newly mated flavus queens, although L. niger was also flying earlier so we had to be careful not to pick up mated niger queens by mistake; but the smaller queens with golden underbodies are definitely flavus. Jen has taken photos and done a video which will follow later The nests around here are just getting started. Many male and female alates have surfaced. I will wait half an hour or so to check and see if I can catch some. I just hope I do not get confused between the Lasius niger queens and Lasius flavus queens.  I look forward for the pictures and I wish you the very best of luck with your new queens!
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Post by Jenny on Jul 11, 2011 16:53:41 GMT
flavus are a lot smaller than the niger queens, and bright yellow. Have a quick shutter on your collecting pot as they are slippery and fast and climb back out ;D
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Post by Blem12 on Jul 11, 2011 18:21:38 GMT
flavus are a lot smaller than the niger queens, and bright yellow. Have a quick shutter on your collecting pot as they are slippery and fast and climb back out ;D I know what you mean . I just collected 9 L.flavus queens. I think I could have captured several more but they were all scattered through the grass in the field making it difficult to capture them. Blem12. |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 11, 2011 19:02:03 GMT
Good luck with these. I don't get L.flavus where I live, funnily enough. I missed the flights in the Queen Elizabeth country park at any rate. |
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Post by Jenny on Jul 11, 2011 19:09:37 GMT
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Post by Jenny on Jul 11, 2011 19:24:55 GMT
Catching a decent photo of the flavus queens before a mating flight is difficult on the focusing, this attachment was taken at the same time as the above video. Attachments:
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Post by fry on Jul 11, 2011 21:11:06 GMT
will you be selling any of them ?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 12, 2011 0:42:23 GMT
will you be selling any of them ? I expect we will have some to spare, so we may sell these cheap to members. PM me if you wish to know more, as the price will mainly cover postage costs |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 25, 2011 18:53:55 GMT
I was right about today being perfect for flavus to fly, as some nests have released winged males and females from 6.30PM which have only just ended. Although Jen saw several mated niger queens roaming the path, we haven't found any of the flavus girls to pick up  Perhaps they have flown too far away, or maybe we might see a few tomorrow? |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 26, 2011 1:18:39 GMT
We had to wait until 8PM before mated queens began dropping back to the ground and started to remove their wings, but although the sun had set and dusk was falling fast, young flavus queens began to run around seeking nesting sites. Needless to say we gathered up a few queens, although Jen picked up the most as all I could manage to catch was one  ;D |
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;D
