Are these Lasius Flavus?
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
October 11, 2011 1:27 am
My wife noticed these ants flying around (not particularly well) in our basement. We pulled stuff away from the hole that’d been cut in the wall some time previously for access to find these ant coming out from under the pavement around these pipes. The photos were taken Oct 10, 2011. It was fairly cold but then record warm on the weekend, I wonder whether that has something to do with their emergence? We think tree roots are coming up under the house, we believe that we can actually see some around the pipe, would that be why they ended up where they were? The ones with wings were about 1cm in length and had an abdomen the same colour as the ones without wings.
Signature: Mark
Hi Mark,
We just posted a photo that we believe to be swarming Citronella Ants and they look very much like your ants. When ants swarm, they will often do so over a great portion of their range simultaneously, which lends credence to the possibility that you also have Citronella Ants. From our brief research, Citronella Ants are in the genus Lasius and the subgenus Acanthomyops according to BugGuide. According to BugGuide, Lasius flavus is in the subgenus Cautolasius. We don’t feel comfortable taking this to the species level, but we do believe the genus is correct. Perhaps someone with more knowledge on Ants can clarify the identification.
