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Photo#347869
Ants - Lasius

Ants - Lasius
Cross Plains, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
August 15, 2009
Lifting up piece of bark from a fallen tree I found this nest of ants. I don't know what the interaction was between the different ants when the bark was in place but once the bark was lifted there was quite a bit of activity. The large black carpenter ants came to where the small pale ants (I'm assuming Citronella ants judging from their odor) and would grab them. The small yellow ants, when not being harassed by the carpenter ants, were occupied in moving the cocoons to a safer area under another section of bark.

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Moved
Moved from Ants.
I've moved this series to the Acanthomyops section, and I'll add a link to it from the Camponotus pennsylvanicus page.

The small yellow ones...
are indeed Citronella Ants (Lasius sp.,subgenus Acanthomyops). The eggs are actually pupal cocoons of the same Ants. True eggs would have been much smaller, and shinier.
The marauding black Carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) quickly seized the opportunity (made by the sudden lifting of the common "roof") to rob some of these pupae (as food for their own brood).

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