{{short description|Species of ant}} {{Speciesbox | image = Lasius umbratus (Formicidae), Kampina, the Netherlands.jpg | image_caption = ''Lasius umbratus'' worker ant from North Brabant, Netherlands | taxon = Lasius umbratus |parent=Chthonolasius | authority = (Nylander, 1846)&nbsp;<ref>{{ITIS |id=577067 |taxon=''Lasius umbratus''}}</ref> }}

'''''Lasius umbratus''''', colloquially known as the '''yellow shadow ant''' and '''yellow lawn ant''',<ref name="CommonNames">{{cite book |last=Cole|first=Theodor C. H.|title=Wörterbuch der Wirbellosen / Dictionary of Invertebrates: Latein-Deutsch-Englisch|publisher=Springer-Verlag|edition=1st|location = Berlin|date = 2016|page = 574|doi = 10.1007/978-3-662-52869-3|isbn=9783662528693}}</ref> is a Palearctic species of parasitic ant distributed across Eurasia and the Maghreb region of Africa.<ref name="AntMaps">{{Citation |last1=Guénard|first1=Benoit|last2=Weiser|first2=Michael|last3=Gómez|first3=Kiko|last4=Narula|first4=Nitish|last5=Economo|first5=Even P|title=The Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics (GABI) database: a synthesis of ant species geographic distributions|journal=Myrmecological News|issue=24|pages = 83–89|date=February 2017| url=https://antmaps.org/index.html?|issn=1997-3500}}</ref> 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''.<ref name="aphidicola">{{Citation |last1=Schär|first1=Sämi|last2=Talavera|first2=Gerard|last3=Espadaler|first3=Xavier|last4=Rana|first4=Jignasha D.|last5=Andersen|first5=Anne Andersen|last6=Cover|first6=Stefan P.|last7=Vila|first7=Roger|title=Do Holarctic ant species exist? Trans-Beringian dispersal and homoplasy in the Formicidae|journal=Journal of Biogeography|volume=45|issue=8|pages=1917–1928|date=June 2018|doi=10.1111/jbi.13380|bibcode=2018JBiog..45.1917S |s2cid=51832848 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Socially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers|url=https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01207-2|journal=Current Biology|date=2025-11-17|issn=0960-9822|pmid=41253115|pages=R1079–R1080|volume=35|issue=22|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.037|language=English|first=Taku|last=Shimada|first2=Yuji|last2=Tanaka|first3=Keizo|last3=Takasuka|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.bogleech.com/bio-insects.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915202227/http://www.bogleech.com:80/bio-insects.html |archive-date=2008-09-15 |title = Insects and other Arthropods}}</ref>

They are sometimes confused with ''L. flavus'' (yellow meadow ant) but unlike ''L. flavus'' they forage for food on the surface.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{commonscat-inline|Lasius umbratus|''Lasius umbratus''}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1461883}}

umbratus Category:Slave-making ants Category:Insects described in 1846 Category:Taxa named by William Nylander (botanist)

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