ANTSTORE World of Ants (F)  >> English forum (F)  >> Help to identify ant species (F)
 [1]   [2] 

Click to view full story of "Found these today"

darradar: Found these today (16. Jul 2008 17:35)

Hello guys,
i needed to repot some ornamental grass i bought last year, and to my suprise as i pulled it away from the old pot, all these bright yellowish insects started running all over, as i went in for a closer look i saw them to be ants....wow i never saw ants this colour here before, so hopefully somenone can throw some light on the matter, youl also see, that as i was taking the photos a winged queen came out, so i got some photos of her too, she has yellow legs.
yuol see on the photos that the tiny eggs are everywhere, but i scooped up all i could and put them all back in the pot with the plant...and will leave them for now.

Skippy: (16. Jul 2008 18:48)

Firstly it looks like Lasius flavus , but from the picture of the winged queen , you can see she has small gaster. This is specific for parasite species of Lasius group. There is only one yellow/orange parasite specie here in Europe , and it is Lasius umbratus. I am not sure but you can try feed them ... Lasius flavus queen will eat a lot to full gaster , umbratus only a bit (eat only to stay alive).

SteveUK28: (16. Jul 2008 18:52)

Could be Lasius flavus, i dont think there is many ofther spec they could be..

darradar: (16. Jul 2008 18:59)

you saw these in england before steve?

miszt: (16. Jul 2008 19:56)

Firstly it looks like Lasius flavus , but from the picture of the winged queen , you can see she has small gaster. This is specific for parasite species of Lasius group. There is only one yellow/orange parasite specie here in Europe , and it is Lasius umbratus. I am not sure but you can try feed them ... Lasius flavus queen will eat a lot to full gaster , umbratus only a bit (eat only to stay alive).

culd be, although umbratus is not common in the UK, flavus is fairly common tho, wuld be my bet

was very happy to discover a few colonies living near my new house :D

JimmyVe: (16. Jul 2008 20:28)

I would also go for Lasius flavus but like Skippy said, it also could be Lasius umbratus .

ratgreen: (16. Jul 2008 20:40)

yer im saying Lasius f lavus, loads of them in my garden, see them alot

miszt: (16. Jul 2008 22:49)

note about species names, second part is always lower case :) Lasius flavus

tail__: (17. Jul 2008 08:25)

Skippy is right, the winged queen's shape is very characteristic to Chthonolasius umbratus (there are actually a few related species, but they look almost identical). L. flavus queen has much larger gaster. The workers look very similar to L. flavus, but are a little bit larger. L. umbratus is actually quite common in Europe, but is much harder to spot than L. flavus, because, unlike L. flavus, nesting simply in soil and building small mounds, L. umbratus usually build nests between roots or cracks in buildings, so it is rare to accidentaly find their colony. But this is the case.

highered: (17. Jul 2008 11:29)

Laisus flavus don't have yellow legs so it must be something else.


 [1]   [2]