Around 6:00 pm on a clear warm day, these shiny red Polyergus were returning to their nest with pupae and prepupae of their obligate host Formica incerta. Note two of the brownish host workers on the right side of the image. Both the social parasite and host species are grassland dwellers, found in barrens and tall grass prairie remnants, and in reconstructed prairies and old fields, in much of eastern North America.

This is the true P. lucidus, compared with types.