Yellow Meadow Ant

Lasius Flavus

Yellow Meadow Ant (Lasius Flavus)
  • Aiwok, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
    •

    • Color: Clear yellow, brownish-yellow
    • Worker size: 2.2-4.8 millimetre
    • Colony size: 10,000 (avg.)
    • Queen: 7.2-9.5 centimetres, claustral, pleometrosis

    Introduction

    Yellow Meadow ants are a unique type of ant that is common in Europe. These ants build mounds that can be as big as basketballs, but are usually covered with plants. Yellow Meadow ants have queens that are 8 mm long. They are also dark orange and brownish. The workers are 2-5 mm long and are orange. They have some workers that are slightly bigger, which could be used for defence. These ants could greatly annoy humans, as they upturn soil each year for their nest. Yellow Meadow ant queens are much darker in colour than the workers, and are 7-9 mm long.

    Unique Traits

    Towering Fortresses

    Yellow Meadow ants build large mounds that are often seen in some meadows and, of course, front lawns. The ants change the landscape of grasslands, salt marshes, and sand dunes by building these mounds. These mounds are often called antscapes and hummock pastures. Their mounds are made out of mineral soil. These ant mounds also have very long-lasting effects on plants, compared to other ant mounds.

    Defences

    These ants are really shy. This species also sprays formic acid.

    Habitat & Diet

    These ants nest in grasslands and meadows, provided that the grass isn’t cut too often and that the grass still allows sunshine to reach the soil. This species is often seen in a mutual relationship with the Chalkhill Blue Butterfly, drinking its larvae’s sugary excretions while defending them. They take the larvae back to their nests, so they can farm them. Yellow Meadow ants are usually underground in their nests, farming the aphids that feed off roots for honeydew. These ants don’t forage far from their nests. These ants farm Dandelion Root Aphids (Trama rara) and Pistachio-Grass Root Aphids (Forda Formicaria). These ants are very common in Central Europe, but they can be present in other places.

    Sources:

    Written by: Eric Qian