black garden ant
lasius niger latin

It looks like Lasius niger, the black garden ant.

The researchers studied black garden ants using a nest that was connected to a food source by an elevated pathway.

The type species for this genus is the black garden ant, Lasius niger.

The Black garden ant (Lasius niger)

The black garden ant (Lasius niger) for example will remove predators such as ladybirds from the vicinity of aphids thus keeping its "milch cows" safe.

Superficially, they are similar in appearance to the common black garden ant, Lasius niger, but have significantly different behavioural patterns, particularly in the social structure within colonies.

Black garden ants often explore their surroundings quite extensively during early summer months in an effort to increase the food supply to their queen and her young, and also as a way of testing new ground in preparation for the nests' summer flight.

The black garden ant (Lasius niger), also known as just common black ant, is a formicine ant, the type species of the subgenus Lasius, found all over Europe and in some parts of North America and Asia.