Lasius distinguendus

This species exhibits temporary social parasitism. Queens found new colonies by infiltrating an established nest of Lasius alienus, killing the queen and using host workers to care for her initial brood.

Identification
Collingwood (1979) - Most easily recognised in the queen caste. It is like a larger, paler Lasius mixtus but has more abundant genal hairs and a high broadly emarginate scale. The worker has occasional tibial hairs and longer body hairs than L. mixtus and would be more easily confused with Lasius umbratus.

Distribution
Mainly found in South and Central Europe. According to B. Pisarski (priv. commun.) it occurs in North Germany and probably also in Poland (Collingwood 1979).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey.

Fungi
This species is a host for the ectoparastic fungus Aegeritella tuberculata (Espadaler & Santamaria, 2012).

Nomenclature

 *  distinguendus. Formicina umbrata subsp. distinguenda Emery, 1916a: 64, figs. VI,4; VII,6 (w.q.) ITALY. Karavaiev, 1936: 214 (m.). [Also described as new, but bicornis susbp. distinguenda, by Emery, 1916b: 242.] Combination in Lasius: Müller, 1923: 13; in L. (Chthonolasius): Emery, 1925b: 234. Raised to species: Bondroit, 1918: 32. Subspecies of umbratus: Emery, 1922b: 13; Stärcke, 1937: 47. Status as species: Müller, 1923: 130. Junior synonym of umbratus: Wilson, 1955a: 151. Revived from synonymy as subspecies of umbratus: Pisarski, 1975: 39. Revived status as species: Collingwood, 1978: 72. See also: Collingwood, 1979: 102; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 58; Seifert, 1988: 149; Seifert, 1990: 10. Senior synonym of hybrida: Stärcke, 1937: 57; Seifert, 1988: 149; of nuda and material of the unavailable name cereomicans referred here: Seifert, 1990: 10.
 * nuda. Formicina umbrata var. nuda Bondroit, 1917a: 176, fig. 2 (q.) no locality given. Junior synonym of affinis: Emery, 1925b: 234; of umbratus: Stärcke, 1937: 57; Agosti & Collingwood, 1987a: 58; of distinguendus: Seifert, 1990: 10.
 * hybrida. Formicina distinguenda var. hybrida Bondroit, 1918: 33 (w.q.) ITALY. [First available use of Formicina umbrata subsp. distinguenda var. hybrida Emery, 1916a: 66; unavailable name.] Combination in Lasius (Chthonolasius): Emery, 1925b: 234. Subspecies of umbratus: Emery, 1922b: 13. Junior synonym of distinguendus: Stärcke, 1937: 57. Revived from synonymy and raised to species: Arnol'di & Dlussky, 1978: 555 (in key). Junior synonym of distinguendus: Seifert, 1988: 149.