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HELP!I Was Flipping Over Rocks And I Found A Queen Ant With A Wing Beside A Massive Lasius Neoniger Colony!She Is Parasitic...Her Jaws..Build..Etc....But I Don't Have A Species ID On Her!I Have No Idea What Species She Is!Ill Share Picture On Instagram
Instagram:ptasker_15
Here's A Desc

She Is A Pure Blood Red
She Has A Temple Like Pheidole
She Ripped Apart A Lasius Neoniger Worker I Offered
The Only Wing She Has Left Is Kinda Brown
She's 7 MM(Guess)
She Hasn't Layed Eggs
The Last One If Her I Kept Didn't Lay Eggs And Died

is there any way you can share the pic. on the forum?

Nobody is going to go onto instagram. Post the picture here.

Martialis wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:08 pm

Nobody is going to go onto instagram. Post the picture here.

Says "Picture File Too Large"

Not a social parasite. Looks like Tetramorium bicarinatum, but we would need better pictures and an actual measurement to do a proper ID.

are all social parasites the same genus as the species as their host?

Yes.But It Ripped Apart A Lasius Neoniger I Offered.

Looks like Tetramorium bicarinatum. Semi-claustral, not parasitic.

antnest8 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:26 am

are all social parasites the same genus as the species as their host?

For the most part, yes, but the taxonomy hasn't quite caught up with this trend. The likes of Polyergus and Strongylognathus are still distinct genera, even though they are they are so closely related to their host species. With the exception of some guest ants (i.e. Formicoxenus, which don't enlist the workforce of their host nest) all social parasites evolved from their host.

Some ants were recently combined with their host as we discovered their relatedness:
Teleutomyrmex and Anergates have recently been reunited with their host, Tetramorium.
Acanthomyops (the claviger group of Lasius) used to be its own genus.
Temnothorax americanus used to be part of Harpagoxenus.

Most social parasites were never separated from their host genus.