Early October southern Germany catches

[Serafine]

I'd guess they're Lasius but not sure (maybe Tetramorium?).
Caught between 27th Sept. and 3rd Oct in Southern Germany, near Stuttgart when there were a few warm days after a period of rather wet weather.
They're about 0.6-1cm long (caught 4 of them, 3 still haven't thrown their wings off) and mostly blackish/really dark brown with amber stripes on their abdomens. Their bodies seem mostly plain with little to no hair.
Tried to make pictures as good as possible but it's really hard even with a good cam as they're so tiny and I don't want to disturb them too hard (so no using my super bright daylight lamp). If you right-click on them and select "show picture" you can get them even a bit bigger (they're taken in 2048 x something).

[Batspiderfish]

I agree with Tetramorium.

[Serafine]

Thank you a lot! That's actually what I hoped for

[idahoantgirl]

Thank you a lot! That's actually what I hoped for

ummmm. no. not at all. no way. I don't know what it is, but it's 100 percent not tetramorium. the gaster is too large and the head and thorax too small to be tetramorium.

[Serafine]

The gaster was smaller when I caught them and the stripes were more whitish and not as amber as they look now.
The one on the pics one is about 1cm, maybe a little bit smaller.

[Serafine]

This is a list of what could be flying in Germany at this time:
http://ameisenforum.de/schwarmflug.php

[Batspiderfish]

Alright, so since we have a bit of doubt here, I'd like to see a suite of pictures much in the way that antweb does it; one from directly above, one that shows a profile of the queen (particularly showing of the propodeum and petioles, and one of the face. As in-focus as you can get, first, as close as you can get, second. If you haven't done so already, get an accurate measurement of the queen in the photos.

The two possibilities we are looking at seem to be a late flying Aphaenogaster subterranea, or the normal flight for Tetramorium impurum. The head and hang of the gaster do remind me of Aphaenogaster, but the petioles are disk-shaped, which is a Tetramorium trait. Aphaenogaster queens also top out at 7mm in length, max.

[Serafine]

I'll try to take some tomorrow, right now it's too dark.

[Batspiderfish]

Use a camera flash, if you have it. Or, at least take your photographs from the illuminated side of the queen.

[Serafine]

This is the absolute best I can do (closest possible macro and doubled in size with MS Paint, right-click to see full size):


I don't think she was particularly pleased that I disturbed her again, she was walking around at the bottom of the glas and quickly retreated to the wet cotton when put into the light, so I would like to not annoy her again.

p.s. Should I offer them a small drop of honey or leave them alone? One of them seems to have entered hibernation (at least sort of) but two are wandering around a lot every time I check them (like once every 4-5 days or so).