in April) can colonize established colonies of A. s. subterraneus and A. s. brunneus well before they reproduce themselves.

Like A. insinuator, A. ameliae is one of the rare inquiline parasites that produces workers and resembles its host in morphology, but unlike A. insinuator, A. ameliae queens differ dramatically from their host queen in size. In all colonies of A. subterraneus sampled in A. ameliae range, all of them were parasitized by A. ameliae. Thus, A. ameliae appears to be very common, yet until recently has been overlooked,