Queen ID - South Chicagoland - Captured 7.1.18

[vstrelow]

I had a large yellow citronella queen and brood, but the queen passed after a couple days, I think she may have been Lasius interjectus. These definitely have the funky coconut smell, the citronella smell was actually rather pleasant, as batspiderfish said, lol. Thank you all for the input!

[Batspiderfish]

Was the brood hers? Because citronella ants are all social parasites.

[vstrelow]

I believe it was, yes. There were many workers protecting her, I grabbed several of them as well. They all fed on honey water the first couple days, she was found dead on the third. The nest was full of elates as well that looked identical to her but with wings. I later learned they are nearly impossible to keep in captivity, which is unfortunate because they are a nice size and had great coloration I'd never seen before. I frequent that park often and have seen no signs of the nests that were there, or any of the elates/queens. I only disturbed one of the half a dozen or so active nests found at the park at that time. I've read that little is known about their lifestyle, but they are believed to farm root aphids and rarely have a need to come to the surface. I was not able to identify an alternative species, so made the assumption on the interjectus ID, though I could have been wrong. Extremely strong citronella smell.

[Batspiderfish]

I believe it was, yes. There were many workers protecting her, I grabbed several of them as well. They all fed on honey water the first couple days, she was found dead on the third. The nest was full of elates as well that looked identical to her but with wings. I later learned they are nearly impossible to keep in captivity, which is unfortunate because they are a nice size and had great coloration I'd never seen before. I frequent that park often and have seen no signs of the nests that were there, or any of the elates/queens. I only disturbed one of the half a dozen or so active nests found at the park at that time. I've read that little is known about their lifestyle, but they are believed to farm root aphids and rarely have a need to come to the surface. I was not able to identify an alternative species, so made the assumption on the interjectus ID, though I could have been wrong. Extremely strong citronella smell.

We're raising a couple of citronella ants, lately. My Lasius latipes queen just got her first worker! I haven't found any L. interjectus where I live, sadly. The host species here is Lasius nearcticus, so they'll look kind of similar until the worker develops that orange color.

[vstrelow]

That is extremely awesome. I am going to keep my eyes peeled at the park, maybe I'll give them another shot if I can find some. I do still have my original parasitic Lasius (formerly umbratus) from a couple weeks ago and she has left one worker alive, I added some brood I found and she now has a second worker tending to her as well, fingers crossed that she makes it. The two more recent Lasius queens have been killed by the host workers, despite the latest queen having been collected from under the same rock as the workers I've been using. The citronella ants were the coolest I've seen so far in my area, I'd put them right up there with my subbarbatus (now sitting on four larvae). Would love to try them again and your current success gives me reason to hope.