Ants · Genus: Lasius
Two-Colored Garden Ant
IntermediateLasius emarginatus
Lasius emarginatus is one of the most adaptable and fast-growing garden ant species in Europe. Featuring a reddish-brown thorax contrasted against a dark head and gaster, it is easily distinguished visually from other native Lasius species. Extremely agile and proficient climbers, they commonly nest in walls and deadwood in nature, making them remarkably straightforward to keep in captivity.
- Origin
- Southern EuropeCentral Europe
- Activity time
- Variable
- Winter dormancy
- Yes
Colony traits
- Colony form
- Monogynous (one queen)
- Founding type
- Claustral (independent, without feeding)
- Polymorphism
- Monomorphic (no caste differences)
- Queen size
- 8-9 mm
- Worker size
- 3-5 mm
- Max. colony size
- 10000-30000
- Queen lifespan
- 15-20
- Worker lifespan
- 1-2
Husbandry conditions
- Nest type preference
- Variable
- Nest temperature
- 20-24 °C
- Arena temperature
- 18-26 °C
- Nest humidity
- 40-60 %
- Arena humidity
- 30-50 %
Nutrition
- Feeding notes
- Honey water, sugar water, small feeder insects (fruit flies, mosquitoes, small crickets, mealworms)