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Is it possible that i caught a queen today? I it looks like some kind of Lasius maybe Lasius flavus im not sure, it is a bit smaller then L.niger queen and it is yellowish/brown.... it is a queen, i am 100% sure but im not sure what kind of species has a nuptial flight so early in the year ? :)
Maybe you could upload a pic?
If that is a Lasius you say, then maybe her colony was attacked by another more aggressive ant specie. In this time of year (end of March-middle April) I my self have seen a Lasius niger queen on the ground walking alone. She probably wont live long but you can try. ;)
Some social parasites are able to search for theyr victim-colonies, while the temperatures are so low, that the other ants still can't move - perhaps its something like that!?
It will probably be like Markus said.
Many social parasites swarm now because the hosts ants don´t move so vividly now and they can kill off the queen more easy at this time of a year.
They are mostly very easy to identify because of their unproportionally small gaster and big thorax with very strong mandibles to kill the host queen.
The gaster is very small relative to Lasius sensu stricto niger for example. That is because they don´t need to found alone since they invade a colony and get fed by the workers.
Since I guess that you caught her I guess that she might die soon since she has no host colony.
For example the queen of Dendrolasius fuliginosus can only survive about 2 days without workers. So she has to get into a host colony in that time. Or at least the queens that I catch die that soon, also a friend made pretty much the same observation.
However I have no clue what queens could be swarming in your region right now.
Her mandibles and thorax are very small,i will try my best to upload a picture but im not sure about my macro but i will try
I hope this helps,it is smaller then L.niger,this is the best macro i can do with my telephone... http://www.dodaj.rs/t/3H/3i/2j9VrFUW/imag0211.jpg
Ohoho now that is rare.
That is a queen of Prenolepis nitens!
I should have thought of that as a possibility thinking back...^^
It is one of the rare ants that is active during all the winter. It is comperable to Myrmecocystus spp., it also has workers that get fed up to be really fat to save food for the winter.
I saw them in Croatia everywhere but forgot that you didn´t live in my cold parts of Europe.
They feed mostly of sugar like flowers and lice on plants and so on. The main time of activity is in the spring but in the fall, too, if I remember correctly they aren´t that active in the summer.
However the information that you should be interested in is; They found colonies claustral so you don´t need to feed her. Later they will probably feed on sugar (they didn´t eat honey when I tried to feed it to them in Croatia, only were interested in their lice). Cooling them down in winter is really important!
A really interesting ant. Never was able to catch any myself though I was in Croatia in spring once. :- (
EDIT: Here you might like this picture: http://www.upload.eusozial.de/i/fu7bzw628rjb.jpg
Phil took it when we were in Croatia in 2010. It shows how the worker will look like later. By the way they suck (?) on mealy bugs in that picture. <3
Cool!!!! Better setup my cotton in her testube and wait for the eggs. Will keep updated on my success. P.s. i just love my ninja eye vision. Im not even sure how i spotted her. The only thing or insect that i spot from a distance is a ant queen
Wow never herd of queens flying so early, the early it's here is probably Formica sanguinea [saNguiea] and that's still in early summer :|
Good luck with her tho you are v lucky :)
I've caught yet another Prenolepis queen, i've put them toghether to have as much eggs as i can,but at the moment they dont seem to lay eggs even after 3 days