Queen Ant ID for San Francisco, CA

[mollySF]

Hello,

I am a First Grade teacher, and after searching all summer and finally buying a queen from the GAN, I found this queen in the SCHOOL GARDEN!!

I found her in the Portola neighborhood in San Francisco on August 29. She had already removed her wings. When I checked her today (Sept. 7th) she had laid eggs!

I haven't actually measured her, but think she's about 8mm.

I don't have a great photo of her, as the test tube I put her in is very scratched and I wasn't getting the camera to focus properly, but I do have an okay video!

Here's what I have: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wdtc9FOMocW-BAyJkM-k7gdnpQ0Tz4Zm

Is there any other info I can provide that would be helpful? The kids and I are super curious about what she is!!

Thanks!
Molly

[Alexander]

Lasius niger or neoniger if you are in America

[MorbidBugg]

I agree with lasius Sp. but something about her tells me not to jump right to neoniger or niger... I believe I see some hairs (very faintly and finely) which might suggest a different sp. But it may just be noise from trying to focus through scratched tube.(I assume auto focus was used correct? The Achilles heel of auto focus is scratches on a surface infront of a model will make the models details less sharp as it can't ask what exactly specifically you want and it 'guesses')

[mollySF]

Thank you both!

Brian Fisher from the Cal Academy of Sciences just responded and said he couldn't tell for certain, but that he thought it might be Formica subaenescens and that he could confirm once she has a few workers.

I try for better photos then!

[MorbidBugg]

Interesting. Now it seems there isn't too much reading on them unless you read the taxonomic records of presented cases... a little out of my league, now ant charts don't show formica subaenescens in that area. However it is to point out that ant charts are incomplete at best. However 8 mm to me, seems on the smaller side of formica, and I'm trying to see what I can find on them but it is actually pretty difficult upon first glance