#lasius

Marmax

Alcathous

Euryalus,Eurymachus, Crotalus

Lycurgus

Lasius

Tricolonus

Pelagon

Aeolius

Cronius

Erythras

Very fresh lil Lasius :3

Crime is out of control! "The beetles occupy shelters on foraging trails of L. fuliginosis ants. When night comes, they patrol the trails & take food from ants returning to the nest. They target ants with a lot of food in their bodies. They trick ants into feeding them. The ants soon realize they have been tricked and fight the beetle. The beetle responds by flattening its body to the ground in a way that ants cannot roll over."

(Proof that ants have a sense of fairness. LOL. But seriously, please let the ants around you know about this character.)

and people think they ruin the outdoors????

The tetramorium queens I caught a couple of weeks ago both have egg piles! Interestingly, both of them have their egg piles on the top part of the tube... I wonder if it's a temperature thing?

Anyways back to ignoring them for another couple of weeks.

The Lasius lady, her brood pile is growing well and I think I saw a cocoon! All appears well with this lady, she will need a new tube before hibernation though.

Lastly the P. imparis queens I caught this spring! They appear to be doing well, all 8 of them still alive, and lookie that their first workers!! Now to see how long they remain polygynous. It turns out that P. imparis, while polygynous in the founding stage, the further north in their range you go, the less they are likely to have multi queen colonies? At very least, last year my two that were successful in reaching the colony stage, all but one queen ended up dead after the workers showed up (likely the workers killing the lesser productive of the queens).

Last update is a bit of a sad one.

So one of my P. imparis colonies from last year had a massive crash this summer, I don't know why or how. Usually the go to is something I fed them, but I fed them the exact same stuff as all my other colonies and they're all fine. All that is left of a once thriving colony is the queen and one worker.

I really doubt they will make it but nonetheless I'll still try and give them what they need. It'll be a good sign if she lays eggs again.