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Photo#29091
Queen Ant - Lasius latipes - female

Queen Ant - Lasius latipes - Female
Harvard, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
August 19, 2005
Size: 10mm
Is this some odd species, or just a queen of one of the common ant species?

Strange.
I have no idea what this is, but Alex Wild would know. You might send a link to this image to him. He runs myrmecos.net.

 
Thanks
for all the ID's again Eric. I emailed Alex Wild like you suggested, so maybe we'll find out what this ant is.
I heard back from Alex Wild, and here's what he said.

"That's a queen of one of the parasitic subterranean Lasius
species, probably Lasius (subgen. Acanthomyops) latipes. The workers will look something like the related species L. claviger:

Myrmecos

The queens sneak into nests of other Lasius species like L. alienus or
L. neoniger, kill the resident queen, and use the sizeable worker force
to start raising her own brood. After a couple years, the worker force
will have completely turned over to the parasitic species. Colonies are
entirely subterranean- you will rarely ever see workers above ground-
they tend scale and aphids on plant roots. Acanthomyops ants are not
uncommon but they are patchily distributed. They also have an alarm
pheromone that smells strongly of citronella."

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