Need help identifying these small polygynous ants

Help with identifying the species your ants

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Jasper
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:10 pm
Location: Alicante (spain)

Need help identifying these small polygynous ants

Post: # 41515Post Jasper
Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:36 pm

Hello fellow Ant Lovers,

I have some small polygynous ants I'd like to identify, these ladies have made my home their home, so far i have noticed 3 type of worker ants

Type 1 - 2mm~ | small head (0.5mm~)| small gaster 0.5mm~
Type 2 - 2mm~ | medium head (0.8mm~) | small gaster 0.5mm~
Type 3 - 4mm~ | Big head (1.2mm~) | medium gaster 0.8 mm~

i made some pictures of the ants, please forgive my for the poor image quality these ladies are very small and difficult to photograph. the second photo is of a dead one i found. I shot the picture trough the lens of an microscope note that her gaster is slightly indented

Image
Image

(edit: I'm located in the Alicante area of Spain)

Thorond0r
Posts: 124
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2018 10:50 am
Location: Rhenen, Netherlands

Re: Need help identifying these small polygynous ants

Post: # 41556Post Thorond0r
Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:28 am

Polygynous is when a single colony has more than 1 queen.
When a species has several sizes of workers the word you use is polymorphic

As for what species this is... I'm not sure, but maybe it is Pheidole?
First year of antkeeping, already enjoying it!

Currently founding:

Lasius niger
Lasius umbratus
Lasius flavus


Still hoping to find a Formica queen.

Jasper
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:10 pm
Location: Alicante (spain)

Re: Need help identifying these small polygynous ants

Post: # 41659Post Jasper
Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:55 pm

Thanks, i think they might be the genus you mentioned. reading up on them a bit P. pallidula seem to live in the west-Mediterranean and the pictures look very similar

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