ANTSTORE World of Ants

[yomchi86]

Good evening everyone - I was out picking blackberries today and I noticed a familiar creepy crawly in the blackberry box that was trying to get out very slowly. I was very excited as this is the first ant I've seen out in the wild since I started taking an interest in ants. I took a picture on my phone and wondered what it was as I was pretty confident it wasn't a Lasius niger as I've spent a lot of time trawling the forum and the shop trying to decide what I want my first colony to consist of. After looking at the ants for sale on the shop, I have found a few species which it could be. Would anyone please be able to help identify it for me? I live in Leeds, west yorkshire and was in a wooded area. I carefully took the little ant out and placed it on the ground hoping it would find its way home. As you can see, my finger is under the box so you can get an idea of size (around 5-7mm)

My thought was it was some kind of the following species:

Manica rubida
Myrmica rubra
Myrmica ruginodis
Myrmica scabrinodis

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[Ameisenfreund]

I can`t say, because the image is too blurred

[yomchi86]

Best I could do I'm afraid - I only had my mobile phone with me to take a picture

[baumarkthammer]

Telling aparat Manica and Myrmica spp. is very easy. In contrast to Myrmica, which all have spikes on the end of their thorax, the thorax of Manica is spikeless. And they are somewhat bigger.
I can´t tell all the Myrmica species apart very well either, maybe Phil will tell you how to tell them apart if he reads this thread, he is somewhat better in identifying Myrmica than I am.

[yomchi86]

Thank you for your reply baumarkthammer - They are such interesting creatures!