@futurebird Would you be open to a random ant question? When I was a kid my friends and I tipped over a big rock, and underneath there were a bunch of ants scurrying around. They were a bright translucent green. Any idea what species they might have been? This was in the 1980s in central Ohio.
Green ants in Ohio? Ohio USA, not ... Thailand or Australia?
Green ants are remarkably rare, globally. The most commonly seen green ant is Oecophylla smaragdina, the weaver ant which has many green morphs.
But these would never be found under a rock or in the USA.
Lasius flavus is common under rocks in the US, and light yellow, if they ate something green such as aphids or green candy they might have looked green, or due to lighting?
@futurebird The translucency definitely matches. If Lasius flavus turn greenish if they eat green things, that could be it. Does lawn grass count? It was a light green.
They wouldn't eat grass, they can't digest it. But they might eat very green insects who eat grass... or they might eat human foods with green coloring if they are sweet or contain lots of proteins.
@futurebird I would like to register a complaint. The mere thought of "green ants" was so compelling, I fell down the rabbit hole and read about weaver ants, and now I feel like someone needs to tell the Ant Queen that the poor little larvae are being used like GLUE STICKS to hold the leaves together when building a leaf shelter. I'm sure they did not sign up for that! Mama needs to know!
@thepoliticalcat@futurebird
I was going to link the podcast @KateShaw did about Dracula ants, but I can't find it! Or, I couldn't, but then I found it on my hard drive.
Mysteriously, it's on my hard drive but not on the internet?? I better listen to this file to make sure it's really what I think it is.
@llewelly@futurebird@KateShaw It's very interesting, the adults harvesting their own young for food. Do they only pick certain young, or spread the burden? One wonders.
They don't kill them. Larvae have jaws and unlike adult hymenopterans larvae can often eat solid foods. So the idea is that these ants overfeed the larvae so they can process the proteins into a liquid the adults can eat.
Other ants do similar things... but they don't bite the poor babies they use tropholaxis. The "Dracula" ants are a bit extreme in that way.
@llewelly@futurebird@KateShaw Well, in that case, it wouldn't be OK to share it, since she earns her living from her work, and I have not paid the admission. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was great!