Yellow meadow ant

Taxobox | name = Yellow meadow ant


image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
familia = Formicidae
subfamilia = Formicinae
genus = "Lasius"
species = "L. flavus"
binomial = "Lasius flavus"
binomial_authority = (Fabricius, 1782)

The Yellow Meadow Ant, "Lasius flavus", is one of the most common ants in Central Europe, although it also occurs in Asia, North Africa and eastern North America.

The queen is 7–9 mm long, males 3–4 mm and workers 2–4 mm. Their colour varies from yellow to brown, with queen and males being slightly more darkly colored.

The species lives primarily underground in meadows and very commonly, lawns. The nests are often completely overgrown by grass, however, often their nests rise have outside them, small mounds.

The Yellow Meadow Ant feeds on the honeydew from root aphids, which they breed in their nests. During winter, the aphids themselves are eaten. As a consequence of their feeding habits, the species is seldom seen, but it is possible that it forages outside the nest.
Alates (winged ants) can be seen on warm days and evenings of July and August. This is one of the rare times that they are seen, as workers push the young winged ants out of the nest. Colonies are often founded by multiple queens ("pleometrosis"). Later on, fights between the founder queens will erupt, with only one queen left ("monogyny").

External links

* [http://www.antblog.co.uk/species/lasiusflavus.htm AntBlog has identification, reproduction and colony founding information on Lasius flavus.]