Lasius aphidicola

Lasius aphidicola
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Lasiini
Genus:	Lasius
Section:	flavus clade
Species group:	umbratus
Species:	L. aphidicola
Binomial name
	Lasius aphidicola; (Walsh, 1863)
Synonyms
	Lasius umbratus epinotalis Buren, 1944;

Nests in moist soil in open woodlands, early successional forests, forest edges, and in farm fields (Ellison et al., 2012). Lasius aphidicola was recently (Schär et al. 2018) found to be distinct from the morphologically similar Palearctic species Lasius umbratus.

At a Glance

• Temporary parasite

Photo Gallery

Worker with brood from Harvard, Massachusetts. Photo by Tom Murray.
Dealate queen from Groton, Massachusetts. Photo by Tom Murray.
Dealate queen.

Identification

Mackay and Mackay (2002) - The workers of this species are yellow or pale brown ants, which have small eyes (35 - 65 ommatidia). The length of the longest hairs on the posterior half of the first gastral tergum (excluding those along the posterior strip) are less than ½ the maximum width of the posterior tibia at mid-length. The hairs on the first gastral tergum are spaced far enough apart that the distances between the tips of most or all hairs are greater than their lengths.

Ellison et al. (2012) - Lasius aphidicola is most easily confused with the similarly hairy Lasius subumbratus. However, the hairs on the gaster of L. aphidicola are short and bristly – less than half as long as the hind tibia is wide – whereas the hairs on the gaster of L. subumbratus are longer than the hind tibia is wide. In addition, L. aphidicola has a concave-topped petiole (viewed from the front or back), whereas L. subumbratus has a convex-topped petiole. An undescribed species of Lasius from New England is similar to L. aphidicola except that the new species has erect hairs on its antennal scape and hind tibiae, whereas L. aphidicola does not.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 49.709° to 30.133333°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Nearctic Region: Canada, United States.
Neotropical Region: Mexico.

Older North American records of L. umbratus are most likely to be L. aphidicola (Schär et al. 2018).

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.

Biology

Queens found new colonies by infiltrating an established nest of another Lasius species (including Lasius americanus (unconfirmed), Lasius neoniger, and Lasius pallitarsis), killing the queen and using host workers to care for her initial brood.

Wilson 1955 (given for what was then believed to be the Holartic [[Lasius umbratus) - In North America differs from the European L. umbratus in that it prefers moist soil, but it still shows the same latitude in specific nesting sites. The majority of colonies have been taken under stones, while the rest have been taken in or about rotting logs and stumps. I do not know of any case of this ant building mounds or even nesting in the open soil. In the northern U. S. east of the Mississippi River, L. aphidicola is limited mostly to moist woodland, where it occurs under a wide variety of conditions of soil texture and insolation. In Alabama and Florida, at the southern extremity of the range, all of the several colonies recorded were found in rotting logs and stumps in swampland. In the western U.S., all of the collections with ecological data that I have examined were made under rocks in open forest and along or near forest borders. In New Mexico, A. C. Cole took this species between 7100 and 8000 feet, always under rocks but under variable conditions of soil moisture and vegetation, e.g. dry soil with scattered juniper and pine or oak and pine, moist soil in a clearing near a hardwood forest, and moist soil in an open grassy area.

Generally thought to be subterranean and to subsist primarily on the excreta of aphids and coccids, since these insects are often found in great numbers in the galleries with the ants (cf. Gregg, 1944). Brown (pers. commun.) has also observed workers aboveground on cloudy days in Pennsylvania.

I have observed queens in flight in the environs of Boston, Mass., in September during two recent seasons. Lone dealate queens were found wandering above ground at Cambridge, Mass., on September 5, 1952, and October 2, 1953, and at Plantagenet, Ontario, on June 30, 1952. Dates on which winged forms have been taken alone or in nido cover the same period, as shown by the following randqm sample: VI-28, VII-8, VII-27, VIII-I, VIII-8, VIII-13, VIII-13, VIII-18, VIII-20, VIII-31, IX-I, IX-5, IX-9, IX-27, X-14, X-28, X-29. The data suggest L. aphidicola has an unusually long nuptial season. There is no evidence to indicate that reproductives build aerial swarms during their nuptial flights. I have observed definitely determined L. aphidicola queens flying singly on two occasions in the Boston area.

During fall of 1952 and 1953 I collected numerous dealate L. aphidicola queens at Cambridge, Mass., and tried introducing them into colonies and colony fragments of Lasius pallitarsis, Lasius americanus, and Lasius neoniger, but never obtained a complete adoption and saw no evidence of Mordinstinkt behavior. I have also worked on the theory that the L. aphidicola may join recently fecundated host queens, since both host and parasite queens are often found in species-pure groups under rocks following nuptial flights. Various attempts to bring L. aphidicola and L. neoniqer queens together, including placing them in the same chamber while chilled, have so far failed; the reason may be, however, that L. neoniger is not a natural host.

Lasius niger and L. americanus probably serve as hosts of L. aphidicola in North America as they do in Europe. I have seen two mixed niger-aphidicola nest series from Ute Park, New Mexico (A. C. Cole leg. and Coll., MCZ) and one americanus-aphidicola series from Beatty, Pennsylvania (Schmitt leg.; MCZ). The Beatty L. aphidicola are minimas. Buren (1944) found a single dealate “L. aphidicola" queen with a depauperate colony of "flavus nearcticus”, but to my knowledge there has been no additional evidence forthcoming that this or any other Chthonolasius uses species of Cautolasius as hosts.

Regional Notes

New Mexico (Mackay and Mackay 2002) - Moist areas, ranging from pastures to mixed forests and pine forests. This species nests under stones and logs, tends Homoptera, and is a temporary social parasite of Lasius americanus, Lasius niger and Lasius neoniger. Reproductives were found in nests July and September, dealate females were found in September. It may form a plesiobiotic relationship with Temnothorax rugatulus.

Castes

Worker


Worker. .	Owned by Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Images from AntWeb


Worker. Specimen code casent0103993. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ABS, Lake Placid, FL, USA.

Queen


Queen. .	Owned by Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Images from AntWeb


Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0103997. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ABS, Lake Placid, FL, USA.

Male

Images from AntWeb


Male (alate). Specimen code casent0103996. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ABS, Lake Placid, FL, USA.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

aphidicola. Formica aphidicola Walsh, 1863: 310 (w.q.m.) U.S.A.
- [Note: type-locality Illinois: Rock I., after Wheeler, W.M. 1910e: 240.]
- Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1953c: 150 (l.).
- Combination in Lasius: Mayr, 1886d: 429;
- combination in Lasius (Chthonolasius): Ruzsky, 1912: 633; Ruzsky, 1914a: 61.
- As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Emery, 1893i: 640; Wheeler, W.M. 1900c: 47; Wheeler, W.M. 1904e: 305; Wheeler, W.M. 1905f: 397; Wheeler, W.M. 1906b: 13; Wheeler, W.M. 1910e: 239; Wheeler, W.M. 1910g: 569; Wheeler, W.M. 1916k: 172; Wheeler, W.M. 1916m: 593; Wheeler, W.M. 1917a: 528; Wheeler, W.M. 1917h: 167; Wheeler, W.M. 1917i: 463; Emery, 1925b: 235; Smith, M.R. 1928c: 277; Dennis, 1938: 296; Wing, 1939: 164; Wesson, L.G. & Wesson, R.G. 1940: 101; Cole, 1942: 375; Smith, M.R. 1951a: 852.
- Junior synonym of flavus: Mayr, 1886d: 429; Cresson, 1887: 255.
- Subspecies of umbratus: Emery, in Dalla Torre, 1893: 182; Wheeler, W.M. 1908g: 406; Buren, 1944a: 297; Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, E.W. 1944: 257; Creighton, 1950a: 425.
- Junior synonym of umbratus: Wilson, 1955a: 150; Smith, D.R. 1979: 1439.
- Senior synonym of epinotalis: Schär et al., 2018: 6.
- Status as species: Mayr, 1863: 411; Schär et al., 2018: 6.
epinotalis. Lasius (Chthonolasius) umbratus subsp. epinotalis Buren, 1944a: 297 (w.) U.S.A.
- Junior synonym of umbratus: Wilson, 1955a: 152.
- Junior synonym of aphidicola: Schär et al., 2018: 6.

Taxonomic Notes

Schär et al. (2018): Lasius aphidicola (Walsh, 1863) stat. nov. was treated as a junior synonym of La. flavus by Mayr (1886), a subspecies of La. umbratus by Wheeler (1908) and most recently as a junior synonym of La. umbratus by Wilson (1955). Our results suggest that Lasius aphidicola (Walsh, 1863) should be treated as a valid species. The junior synonym Lasius umbratus epinotalis Buren, 1944 should be transferred from synonymy with L. umbratus to synonymy with La. aphidicola.

Description

References

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