ANTSTORE World of Ants

[SteveUK28]

Hi Guys,
Ive done a forum search and gallery search for Lasius lasioides... but didnt come up with much about this ants.. Does any1 have a colony and what can you tell me about them please.. Specificaly Size.. and how quick/large colony growth is??

Regards

Steve

[JimmyVe]

Hello Steve, sorry no experience with this species, it think the growing of these ants (colony) is about the same as Lasius niger.

[OresUkos]

Hi Steve, I've managed to find some information on a german site about this species of ants: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
Although it doesn't specificly answer thequestions you asked, it might still be an interesting read.

I've roughly translated the useful parts (Please correct me if I translated anything incorrectly)

Lasius lasioides (Emmery, 1869) is a species of the subgenus Lasius, to which e.g. also L. Niger, L. alienus, L. brunneus, L. emarginatus and grandis belong to.

According to Seifers (1992) Lasius lasioides is closely related to brunneus (A possible distinction between the two species would be the proportion of the antennae length/head lenght). L. lasioides is widely spread around the Mediterranean sea (Southern France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesien and on the Mediterranean islands), from sea level up to heights of 1.750 m.

Habitat: Everywhere, within the vicinty of at least a few trees, from sand dunes with only a few trees to open oak forests up to dense black pine forests. Nests in dead wood and underneath stones.

Their behavior is similar as L brunneus: Shy, doesn't attack when the nest is opened, instead they hide themselves. Winged ants were observed between 12th of May and 7th of July, so the swarm flights are as early in the year as those of L brunneus.

...

For people buying this speices it may be interesting whether the animals originate from sea level or from the mountains: The wintering temperatures and their duration might be very different!

[sianhilton]

Hi Steve

I have a small colony of Lasiodes, I have had these since September-07. They stayed in test tube for all the winter months.

Started with Queen and 8-9 workers.

They nested in an empty snail shell for a while, with brood. They have now taken residence in small tank of sand and loamy soil. They were active for a while eating and concealing files that were presented to them, but since March activity has decreased , I occasionally catch sight of one worker coming to the surface.

They are very small and fast moving and good at escaping.

They are surviving rather than thriving!

Maybe room temp is not sufficient as they are southern Europe of origin. I will try heater mat on 1/2 of the tank an see if that helps?

[SteveUK28]

Thankyou very much both of you.. very interesting.

@Sian, If you are gonna try heating id put it to the side of the tank and not under it but please let us know the result of giving them some heat.