Need ID - North/east Europe 13.06

Help with identifying the species your ants

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Cerbenix
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 3:06 pm
Location: Latvia

Need ID - North/east Europe 13.06

Post: # 37600Post Cerbenix
Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:33 am

I'm from Latvia, a country in the north east of Europe. Today on the 13th of June I went to a forest to look for camponotus ants. Although I saw lots and lots of workers only managed to capture one camponotus herculeanus (I think) queen and one other that I have not seen before.
I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what ant I'v got. Hopefully the pictures are good enough, I don't have a camera with a macro setting. A little description - her gaster is black and very shiny, her legs and underside are brown, a little bit red even. In terms of size she is about 11-13 mm long.
Top view of unknown ant.
Image
Little bit of a side view
Image
The two ants I caught today. The closest one i think is C. herculeanus??? The furthest one is the one I need an ID on.
Image

If needed I can provide some more pictures.

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Batspiderfish
Posts: 3315
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
Location: Maine

Re: Need ID - North/east Europe 13.06

Post: # 37604Post Batspiderfish
Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:52 am

The smaller queen is a Formica social parasite which will need 6-8 Formica pupae to start a colony.

The Camponotus requires better pictures to ID. These pictures are kind of dark.
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

Cerbenix
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 3:06 pm
Location: Latvia

Re: Need ID - North/east Europe 13.06

Post: # 37607Post Cerbenix
Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:06 pm

Thank you for the reply. Don't really care about Camponotus one just wanted to know what the other one was.
So I guess there is no point in keeping the Formica one? Is there? No idea if I would be able to find Formica pupae.

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