I´ve made this topic just for share a bit of my knowledge with this community, so not a blog or somethink else.
You probably read a name of this ant species first time. Well , it is one of the rarest European species aswell.
There is not much documentation about them... , but I think it is good to know , that some of this kind lives here.
It lives more into East , for you as Benelux is nearest location south Austria or Slovakia where these ants lives.
Why I am so interested in study of these ants? It is only one specie in Europe , who make honey pot , like Myrmecocystus species in USA. In closely look , it is very similar to Prenolepis imparis in USA.
It is underground ant , what keep some species of root aphids , especially on roots of oak trees.
Worker: 3-3,8mm
Queen: 9mm + -
Color is about dark brown into red , queen brown into yellow.
At friday 25. March I was watching swarm of these ants all day in location where they live. I´ve made many HD videos of these ants , here is some sample , where you can see queen and males trying to copulate:
I´ve cought 17 queens what I now keep in laboratory nest for study. It is very difficult to keep , however I´ve tried it for several years with no success (queens always died in some days after cought...)...
Wish me a luck!
Here are some photos of the ants
, if you have any question , you can ask me in this topic too...
