Brown garden ant
| Brown garden ant | ||||||||||||
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Brown garden ant ( Lasius brunneus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lasius brunneus | ||||||||||||
| ( Latreille , 1798) |
The brown garden ant ( Lasius brunneus ) belongs in the subfamily of the scale ants (Formicinae) to the genus of the garden ants ( Lasius ). It is a tree-dwelling species of garden ant that prefers to feed on the honeydew of aphids .
features
Workers reach a size of 2.5–4 mm, the queens are about twice as long (6.5–8.5 mm); Males reach 4–5 mm. The queen's thorax is different in comparison to other species of ants, e.g. B. Black garden ant ( Lasius niger ) relatively flat. The species is distinctively two-colored, the head and free abdomen ( gaster ) of the workers are dark, the trunk section ( mesosoma ), the stalk ( petiolus ) and the extremities are yellowish-brown, brown-gray or slightly reddish. The species is characterized by the smooth, weakly shiny surface sculpture and the adjacent hairs, protruding hairs (setae) on the extremities are completely absent. It can be confused with the two-colored house ant ( Lasius emarginatus ), but it is more slender.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area extends across Europe to the Caucasus and north in Sweden to the 61st parallel. It is widespread in the Mediterranean area, but only occurs in mountain regions above 1,000 meters above sea level. It is also widespread in Anatolia . Occurrences in the western Himalayas ( India and Pakistan ) were identified as the subspecies Lasius brunneus subsp. himalayanus Forel, captured in 1917, but many taxonomists do not consider this subspecies justified.
The species inhabits light forests and open areas with deciduous trees, such as orchards, it sometimes occurs on isolated trees, but is always tied to trees. In addition to Lasius fuliginosus , it is the most common species of the genus that lives on wood in Central Europe. It can occur with nest densities of up to 23 nests per 100 m², as observed in oak - hornbeam forests in the Harz Mountains. Sometimes there are two colonies in the same tree that fight each other on contact. Dead wood is clearly preferred for nesting, but it can penetrate into living wood from here. Because of the close links with the living on deciduous trees aphids is Lasius brunneus often in parks and cities. In addition, animals that bring insects into the nest as prey have also been observed.
symbiosis
Lasius brunneus practices intensive trophobiosis with aphids . The ants use the aphids as food suppliers. They tap (beetle) with their antennae on the abdomen of the aphids, causing them to secrete a sweetish secretion. The excretion ( honeydew ) of the aphids is taken up by the ants with the mouthparts ( mandibles ) and carried in the crop to the ant nest. There the secretion is passed on to other ants. According to older information, it only feeds on the excretions of the aphids. In return, the ants defend the aphids against natural enemies, such as ladybird species and their larvae . Because deciduous trees lose their leaves in autumn, the number of aphids drops sharply. This reduces the food supply of honeydew, which leads to hibernation in the ant colony.
Nest building
Lasius brunneus normally nests in rotten dead wood of trees. It nests both in the root area of trees and up to four meters above the ground. Alternatively, stored and built-in building material is also populated near the deciduous trees. It can therefore destroy large areas of built-in wood if it is soaked through. It can also shred plasterboard . Extensive paths and chambers are created in particular in EPS and XPS thermal insulation panels made of polystyrene . These insulation boards have a material quality similar to that of damp dead wood. The ants use their mouthparts to break up the building material into tiny parts and transport them to other cavities or outside, which means that the pest infestation is often only visible late. Lasius brunneus is therefore the garden ant in houses most frequently reported as annoying or harmful in Germany.
Reproduction
The sex animals equipped with wings swarm out on warm midsummer days. The mating takes place in flight. The smaller males die soon afterwards, the significantly larger female throws off her wings and makes a nest. After the mating flight, which usually takes place from the end of May to the beginning of August from 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the queens look for the proximity of trees and establish there in small cavities, e.g. B. under bark, in broken branches or boreholes from other insects, a first nest. They close the chamber (claustral colony foundation). Here the queen lays eggs and raises the first workers. The colonies contain one to several queens. Ripe colonies migrate towards the ground with increasing size, as soon as there is no longer enough space and often create a widely ramified system of chambers that can last for many years.
useful information
The connecting paths between the breeding chambers are chosen so that the workers' migration can be as invisible as possible. Only when it cannot be avoided are open areas quickly crossed. Lasius brunneus is not very aggressive in the event of disturbances and is quick to flee. Ant poisons generally available in the trade (e.g. bait granules with the contact poison fipronil ) are avoided by her.
Phylogeny and Taxonomy
The species was first described by Latreille as Formica brunnea , synonyms are Formica timida Förster, 1850, Lasius niger var. Alieno-brunneus Forel, 1874, Acanthomyops brunneus var. Nigro-brunneus Donisthorpe, 1926. It belongs to the genus Lasius , subgenus Lasius ( s. str.) into the Lasius brunneus species group. This also includes the European species Lasius neglectus , Lasius turcicus , Lasius lasioides and Lasius austriacus .
swell
- Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
- Robert Nachtwey : instinct, riddle of the world. Images of life from the forest and the fields . Brockhaus Verlag, 1950, DNB 453528457 .
- Karl Escherich : The ant: description of their way of life. Braunschweig 1917. (Verlag Springer-Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-98715-0 , Lasius brunneus p. 147 and 148)
- Theodor CH Cole: Dictionary of Invertebrates / Dictionary of Invertebrates, Latin-German-English. Springer Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-662-52869-3 .
- Bernhard Seifert : Ant observing determine. Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-170-2 .
- Bernhard Seifert: A taxonomic Revision of the Palearctic Members of the Ant Subgenus Lasius s. st. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). In: Treatises and reports from the Natural History Museum in Görlitz. Volume 66, No. 5, 1992, pp. 1-67.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Escherich : The ant: description of their way of life. Braunschweig 1917. (Verlag Springer-Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-98715-0 , pp. 147 and 148)
- ↑ Wolfram Scheiding, Peter Grabes, Tilo Haustein, Vera Haustein, Norbert Nieke, Harald Urban, Björn Weiß Wood protection: wood science - fungi and insects - constructive and chemical measures - technical rules - practical knowledge. Carl Hanser Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-446-44844-5 , p. 160.
- ↑ Ulrich Arnold, Tobias Huckfeldt, Jens Biesenack, Claudia Gust, Reinhard Keller, Gerald Koch: Wooden playgrounds : planning, construction, damage, maintenance. Beuth Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-410-21848-7 , p. 147.
- ^ FM Steiner, BC Schlick-Steiner, S. Schödl, X. Espadaler, B. Seifert, E. Christian, C. Stauffer: Phylogeny and bionomics of Lasius austriacus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). In: Insectes Sociaux. Volume 51, 2004, pp. 24-29. doi: 10.1007 / s00040-003-0699-8
Web links
- Article in the AmeisenWiki
- Robert Nachtwey: instinct, riddles of the world: images of life from the woods and fields. Brockhaus Verlag, 1950, p. 104 u. 120.
- Paths and nests in wood and insulation boards laid out by ants