Black garden ant

This is the ant Lasius niger which is very common, it is found all over Europe as well as in Asia. The vicious looking mandibles are used for chomping on small insects and spiders, this species also milks aphids for honeydew as well eating fruit.

The head is about 1mm across and the total length of the ant is 3.5mm.
This image is a stack of 120 photos which were taken with a Nikon M plan 10/0.25 objective on bellows. This is my first attempt at photographing an insect at this magnification and I found minimizing vibrations to be very difficult. I think I am going to try using a more solid base for my next try.

Lasius niger