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The Essex Naturalist
Distribution
Prince provides a map showing British records and this includes north-west
Essex. The record is from Saffron Walden at TL5238 (Prince pers. comm.). The
distribution of L. platythorax is at present poorly known in Britain and so far
appears to be a southern species.
Habitat and Ecology
The ant appears to prefer moister places than L. niger and is not associated with
stones, pavements, etc. It can be found in woodland clearings and bogs nesting
in dead wood and soil. It may be an indicator of comparatively undisturbed
natural habitat (Prince 1998).
Threats
In view of the number of ancient woodland sites within the county it does seem
possible that the ant will turn out to be widely distributed in Essex. The species
closely resembles L. niger and identification is difficult, requiring morphological
measurements and indices in microns. Queens and males in particular should be
collected from any likely sites. At present therefore the threat status of this
species is unknown.
L. psammophilus Seifert
National status Unknown County status Essex Scarce
Threat status Essex Threatened Frequency Ratio 1.0
Tetrad Percentage 0.6% Recorded 1km sq. percentage 1.2%
L. psammophilus Seifert