''Lasius umbratus'',

colloquially Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...

known as the yellow shadow ant and yellow lawn ant, is a palearctic species of parasitic

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

distributed across

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

and the Maghreb region of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It was once thought that this species occurred in North America as well, but comparative genomic studies indicate the Afro-Eurasian and American populations are discrete and not closely related enough to represent a single species. The North American populations are now treated as a different species, ''Lasius aphidicola''. The

queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

of this species seek out a ''Lasius niger''

worker ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,00 ...

, to first kill in order to gain the worker ant's

scent An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sense ...

and then to discreetly sneak inside a ''Lasius niger'' nest. Once inside the ''Lasius umbratus'' queen finds the ''Lasius niger'' queen, and kills her. The worker ants will care for the new queen's larvae and slowly the colony will be made up of only ''Lasius umbratus'' individuals. They are sometimes confused with '' Lasius flavus'' (yellow meadow ant) but unlike ''L. flavus'' they forage for food on the surface.

References

External links

* umbratus Slave-making ants Insects described in 1846 Taxa named by William Nylander (botanist) {{formicinae-stub