Two-coloured garden ant
Lasius emarginatus
Temperature
22–26 °C
Humidity
50–65 %
Hibernation
November – March
Where it comes from
- Range
- Central and southern Europe, the Caucasus and Asia Minor
- Size
- Workers 3–5.5 mm, queen 8–10 mm
- Queens
- One queen, though several often found together and only one remains
Keeping them
- Diet
- Sugar water and small insects
- Founding
- Fully claustral — the queen needs no food until her first workers
- Brood development
- Egg to worker in roughly 6–9 weeks at 24 °C
- Nest
- Ytong, plaster or acrylic — a rock dweller, so drier than Lasius niger
- Wintering
- 5–10 °C
A red-brown thorax between a dark head and gaster makes it the easiest Lasius to recognise. Climbs well, so mind the lid.
Check it yourself
General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.