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Just caught 2 formica rufa queens. Will post a pic if someone helps a little.

Also have to ID a queen.

Is Formica Rufa a social parasite and is it fully claustral? First caught so want to make sure. Also, pretty sure the unidentified queen is Lasius Niger. Brown color and 9 mm in length.

No way to be sure without an ID. Claustral means that they stay in their own cell to start a colony, so a social parasite like Formica rufa can't be "fully" claustral. They will need 6-8 Formica pupae to start a colony, but make sure the identity is correct.

I'm pretty sure it is F. Rufa. So I just put like Fusca-, or other formica, pupae with her?

Got some F. Fusca pupae. Just put them in?

Caught another L. Niger!

I'm having trouble find L. niger. here in Upstate NY, I've heard that a good place to look is on Golf Courses.... Looks like I need to find some time from work to hit the links.

Yea, I live in countryside so we just turned some rocks. But I think there aren't much rocks on golf courses. They say you should go after a rainstorm. It rained here few days ago and we are finding the fertile queens inside chambers, no eggs yet.

NYAnts11 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:31 am

I'm having trouble find L. niger. here in Upstate NY, I've heard that a good place to look is on Golf Courses.... Looks like I need to find some time from work to hit the links.

Lasius niger (or a close, undescribed species) does exist in North America, but 99.99% of the time you are actually looking at Lasius alienus or another species from that group.