Lasius

Lasius is a genus of formicine ants. The type species for this genus is the black garden ant, Lasius niger. Other major members, which live in drier heathland, are the cornfield ant, L. neoniger, and L. alienus. Other species include the temporary social parasites of the L. mixtus group and the hyper-social parasite L. fuliginosus. Lasius flavus is also a commonly seen species, building grassy hillocks in undisturbed pasture. In the Alps, these mounds – always aligned east to catch the first rays of the rising sun – have been traditionally used by goatherds as natural compasses. Species in the subgenus Acanthomyops, in particular L. interjectus and L. claviger, are commonly known as citronella ants due to their citronella-like smell.

Lasius

April Nobile · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
LasiiniPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 129 ka.

Eocene — about 45 of 96 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 96 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 41 of 96 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 96 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 96 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 18 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 20 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 5 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 29 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.5–4.9 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences41.03 Mya774 ka49 Mya0 Mya

96 occurrences of Lasius on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

96 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°ENiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°ELatah — 46.53°N, 116.79°WKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WKizi — 45.48°N, 137.21°EMiyajima — 36.98°N, 139.82°E

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The named rock units Lasius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 74 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lasius and its relatives

Eocene

Where Lasius and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,399 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Lasius, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

34 references

Each of the 96 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 22 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Lasius

Credit
April Nobile
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLasiini through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fabricius 1805