Lasius umbratus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Lasius umbratus, colloquially known as the yellow shadow ant and yellow lawn ant, is a Palearctic species of parasitic ant distributed across Eurasia and the Maghreb region of Africa. 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 of this species seek out a Lasius niger worker ant to first kill in order to gain the worker ant's scent and then to discreetly sneak inside a L. niger nest. Once inside the L. umbratus queen finds the L. niger queen, and kills her. In Japan, it was observed that a queen took over a colony of Lasius japonicus by spraying an abdominal fluid (presumably formic acid) at a resident queen, inciting the host workers to commit matricide. The worker ants will care for the new queen's larvae and slowly the colony will be made up of only L. umbratus individuals. Ant species like L. fuliginosus find L. umbratus colonies and found their own nest by killing the L. umbratus queen.
They are sometimes confused with L. flavus (yellow meadow ant) but unlike L. flavus they forage for food on the surface. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow Shadow Ant sighting in London on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 1394th most-seen of the 1504 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow Shadow Ant in London on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months.
Only London, in our data
London is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Yellow Shadow Ant sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow Shadow Ant is recorded against all the insects logged in London (5 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
