Lasius fuliginosus

Worker from the Shiny Black wood ant

The Shiny Black wood ant or carton ant ( Lasius fuliginosus ) is a very commonly occurring representatives of garden ants ( Lasius ) in Central Europe. You will be counted in the subgenus Dendrolasius.

Features

The workers are 4 to 6, the males 4.5 to 5, the queens of 6 to 6.5 millimeters long. The queens are thus hardly bigger than large workers, but the abdomen of the queen in the colony founding in egg production swells considerably ( Physogastrie ). As you can infer from its German name, Lasius fuliginosus has a deep black color, which is enhanced by a high gloss. The mandibles and the Fühlerschäfte other hand, are more brown.

Distribution and habitat

Their range extends over large parts of Europe and Asia. In Central Europe it is found everywhere and locally as quite often. The nests of the Black Shiny wood ant are usually located in dead wood, but not only in hollow tree trunks, but also in man-made fence posts or roof beams. Therefore, the type is one of the harmful ants.

Way of life

The reproductives swarm from June to July. Sometimes the young queen is adopted from the mother nest or another nest of this kind. Mostly, however, the young queen parasite in establishing an existing nest of the Yellow Shadow ant ( Lasius umbratus ). It penetrates into a queenless loose nest and lays their eggs, which are supplied by the Lasius umbratus workers. Over time, all helping ants die off and the nest is inhabited only by Lasius fuliginosus. The special feature is that the yellow shade ant is a social parasite itself and needed in the nest foundation also helping ants. Lasius fuliginosus why is also sometimes referred to as hyper- social parasite.

With up to two million workers the polygynous States can be very populous, also several branch nests, each of which also live one or more queens develop.

In the vicinity of the nests a sweet fragrance is noticeable. In their mandibular glands ants Dendrolasin and undecane produce. These secretions are released in case of failure or threat of the nest. What people is just a sweet fragrance, is an efficient method for the ant colony to bring the complete nest on alert. In addition, this scent has a very strong deterrent to Formica and other Lasius species and even works in these toxic.

Nutrition

This species feeds almost exclusively on honeydew of aphids. Often strong belaufene ants streets to form from nearby trees. The Gaster swells at the workers strongly by food intake.

Nesting

The workers build a so-called carton nest of a mass that consists of various solids such as chewed wood and almost 50 per cent of sugar. They gnaw cavities in the wood and fill it with this blackish mass. The cardboard -like structure is the basis for a Lasius fuliginosus bred by fungus. Overgrow the fine hyphae of Cladosporium myrmecophilum and penetrate the thin walls and reinforce this often. The sole purpose of this mushroom cultivation is the stabilization of the cavity walls by the net-like mycelium. Lasius fuliginosus eats not of this fungus, as is often mistakenly assumed.

Swell

  • Heiko Bellmann: bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4
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