The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Found this gal (guy?) when she flew onto my arm. Ran inside like lighting with my hand covering her. when i found my container she had escaped. i looked around in defeat. alas, no where to be found. i went upstairs and got a container ready (container had real big airholes) because obviously a nup. flight was happening and i wanted to go out for a walk. And I felt a tickle on the back of my neck. Instantly I knew it was this alate (queen?). Boy was that hectic. I also found a dead big ol' queen wrapped in spider webs on my grandparents house yesterday.

Anyway, Im still not sure shes a queen. She/he is extremely small for a queen or an alate (idk how big i dont have a ruler) and My camera wont focus in on it well for more than a split second so these photos are the best I have (out of 30ish)

After i placed her into a tube i check to see if she escaoed an hour later, and she started to squirm. no biggy I thought, and then she rolled up like a pill bug (rollie pollie) and started to nibble or clean or something on the end of her thorax. Thats either a good sign (she maybe recently mated?) or a really bad one. Anyone got any ideas or maybe this is normal and Im just paranoid.

That's a queen, though I can't see her clear enough to ID her.

Martialis Thank you! Do you happen to know why she would be acting strangely

Honestly to me it sounds like normal behavior to me. I'm no expert but I really don't think you have anything to worry about my friend. Congrats on the catch by the way

Hey good catch! That quee looks a lot like my Brachymyrmex Sp. queen. When i caught mine she also curled into a ball and was like cleaning her gaster. Mine is aproximately 5mm in length and she has laid her first eggs. But im not entirely sure...

Not in Indiana yet. I'm thinking Nylanderia.

If you have an android, Go into the settings menu on your camera app and set mode to pro, then select the zoom function from the main camera screen and set it to manual. The latest update will enlarge the image for finer focus.

If you have an apple it should be similar instructions but I don't use Apple products so I can't be certain. Apple tends to have better cameras anyway.

If you want even better photos, you can purchase a clip on macro lens on Amazon for pretty cheap.

For best results, use backlighting (Queen should be between the camera and the light source) and hold the camera 2-8 inches from the queen.

Also her behavior sounds normal. If she's cleaning the tip of her gaster it's a good sign she's mated