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Did you figure out what the black ovals from the photograph in the recent Lasius post were? Although aphids give birth to live offspring during parts of their life cycle, they also lay eggs during certain stages. Those stacks of black ovals are root aphid eggs tended by Lasius ants. The following excerpt from Applied Entomology: An [...] The spring flowers are lovely here in Arizona. The “peanut cactus” flower is a brilliant red-orange. The ground is covered with mounds of pale pink Mexican primroses. Can you spot the rover ants that are hiding the photographs? The path to discovery can be encountered in many ways. Take, for example, flipping over a rock in upstate New York last week. I knew immediately the ants were Lasius (once upon a time called Acanthomyops). I also knew the ants were not Lasius claviger because of something that was missing. Can you guess what?
Solenopsis molesta: they are tiny, they are secretive, they are thief ants. Barely over a millimeter long, you really need a microscope to photograph them. This worker thief ant is running on a piece of cake frosting.
Now that’s better. (Photograph by © AntWeb.org / CC-BY-SA-3.0 retrieved from Wikipedia.) The workers are often golden yellow-brown in color and [...] |
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