Garden ants

Garden ants
Alien garden ant ( Lasius alienus )
Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta) Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera) Family : Ants (Formicidae) Subfamily : Scale ants (Formicinae) Genre : Garden ants
Scientific name
Lasius
Fabricius , 1804

Garden ants with pupae

The garden ants ( Lasius ) are a genus of ants (Formicidae) from the subfamily of the scale ants (Formicinae). They occur in holarctic distribution with over 100 species , in the Palearctic there are around 60 species, which are divided into five sub-genera: real garden ants ( Lasius sensu stricto ), Cautolasius , Dendrolasius , Austrolasius and Chtonolasius . Only the real garden ants and Cautolasius are capable of establishing colony on their own, the other three sub-genera are temporary social parasites .

features

The representatives of the garden ants belong to the rather small ants in Central Europe. The front part of the mesosoma up to the propodeum is very short and stocky. The workers of this genus often have only weak point eyes ( Ocelli ), and the flagella of the antennae are shorter than, for example, in the forest ants ( Formica ).

Way of life

Garden ants place less demands on their environment than wood ants and many species are widespread in Central Europe . Their food mostly consists of honeydew , the excretions of aphids .

evolution

Species that are now assigned to the genus Lasius , for example Lasius schifferdeckeri , which is confusingly similar to the recent black garden ant ( Lasius niger ) , lived in the Eocene around 40 to 50 million years ago, as found in inclusions in Baltic amber show.

Systematics

The following species are represented in Central Europe (selection):

• Subgenus real garden ants ( Lasius sensu stricto )
  • Brown garden ant ( Lasius brunneus ) (Latreille, 1798)
  • Alien garden ant ( Lasius alienus ) (Förster, 1850)
  • Black garden ant ( Lasius niger ) (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Forgotten garden ant ( Lasius neglectus ) Van Loon, Boomsma & Andrasfalvy, 1990
  • Two-colored garden ant ( Lasius emarginatus ) (Oliver, 1792)
  • Lasius paralienus Seifert, 1992
  • Lasius platythorax Seifert, 1991
  • Lasius psammophilus Seifert, 1992
  • Lasius austriacus Schlick-Steiner, Steiner, Schödl and Seifert, 2003
• Subgenus Cautolasius
  • Yellow meadow ant ( Lasius flavus ) (Fabricius, 1782)
  • Lasius myops Forel, 1894
• Subgenus Austrolasius
  • Lasius reginae Faber, 1967
  • Lasius carniolicus Mayr, 1861
• Subgenus Chtonolasius
  • Yellow shadow ant ( Lasius umbratus ) (Nylander, 1846)
  • Lasius mixtus (Nylander, 1846)
  • Lasius sabularum (Bondroit, 1918)
  • Lasius citrinus Emery 1922
  • Lasius bicornis (forester, 1850)
  • Lasius jensi Seifert, 1992
• Subgenus Dendrolasius
  • Glossy black wood ant ( Lasius fuliginosus ) (Latreille, 1798)

Synonyms

The following names are synonyms for the genus Lasius :

• Donisthorpea Morice and Durrant, 1914
• Formicina Shuckard, 1840

swell

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bernhard Seifert : The ants of Central and Northern Europe . lutra Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Görlitz / Tauer 2007, ISBN 978-3-936412-03-1 .
2. ↑ Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
3. ↑ Wilfried Wichard, Wolfgang Weitschat: In the amber forest . Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-8067-2551-9 .
4. ↑ Hölldobler and Wilson : The Ants . Springer (1990) ISBN 3-540-52092-9

literature

• Bert Hölldobler , Edward O. Wilson : Ants. The discovery of a fascinating world. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel - Boston - Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-7643-5152-7

Web links

Commons : Garden ants  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Lasius at Fauna Europaea
• Article about the highly invasive Lasius neglectus in the AmeisenWiki