Black Ant

[Gizzmosaurus]

I caught this queen on the 25th of July in the UK and I thought she was a Formica fusca. Now she is hibernating with her first workers, but she has still got her brood and they are all rather active when I check on them (they are kept at 8 degrees centigrade). As Formica fusca don’t keep their brood over hibernation and she is too big to be a Lasius Niger I don’t know of any other similar ants in the uk (this is my first ant).

Here are some pictures, they are not very good when they come out of hibernation I will get some macro shots of them. They are in a 20mm tube for reference of size.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o4hqzW_aMWudfHGuXE1JSfkyyWAts5bD

[AntsLuxembourg]

To me it's a bit hard to tell. On the last picture it looks like it could be lasius niger but I'm not sure. Do you think you could get some extra pictures of the queen?

[SYUTEO]

Lasius sp, not very sure what species though.

[Gizzmosaurus]

I will try and get some later today I just didn’t want to disturb them too much.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Take your time. Just let us know once you added more pictures. A good picture could be from the top of the queen or a close up shot. A trick that might help is to zoom in on your phone and take a picture instead of trying to focus from very close up.

[Gizzmosaurus]

I had a go getting some better pictures but I couldn’t get a good focus, I have added some more pictures even though they aren’t that good, don’t worry if you can’t identify it.

[Gizzmosaurus]

My guess would be Lasius platythorax