Pittsburgh, PA - Queen Identification 2

[JacobSyndeo]

Hey guys, me again! I made a thread a week or so ago about a queen I caught, she turned out to be a Solenopsis molesta.

After weeks of searching, and only having found that one queen so far, I was about to give up.
But I hit the jackpot today.


Eight queens! I'm ecstatic!

All appear to be from the same species except for one smaller one that I somehow accidentally scooped up along with the larger queen I caught.

Here are some closeups of a few of the beauties! Can you help me identify their species?






And now, here's some of the smaller one:




I'm keeping an eye on her… she seems to be fixing to make an escape through that crack.

(Which brings me to another problem entirely… I don't have enough remaining test tubes for these queens! I made a thread for that topic here: http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1755)

Anyway, thank you so much in advance for your help identifying these queens!

[nightxwolf88]

Look like lasius to me. The small one is a male.

[JacobSyndeo]

Look like lasius to me. The small one is a male.

Haha, well then I'll let him go.

So Lasius neoniger? I read that those ones are very common on/around Labor Day! I tried to find them on Labor Day, but alas, I didn't have any luck. But it rained last night, so I think that coaxed them to come out today! Let me know if you need additional pics.

[nightxwolf88]

I'm still finding lasius neoniger around me too as well as lasius social parasites idk what species tho, maybe interjectous

[Batspiderfish]

They all look like Lasius neoniger to me. The little one is a male. You didn't catch these all right next to each other, right?

[JacobSyndeo]

They all look like Lasius neoniger to me. The little one is a male. You didn't catch these all right next to each other, right?

I caught them in the same park field, in the area of a few acres. Some were caught in a soccer field area, others in the outfield of a baseball field, and some were by the parking lot. They were really just flying wherever. I made sure to catch any I saw land and try to make their way down below the grass (because I imagine this indicates that they successfully mated).