My First Queens!

[AntsRule]

My queens look exactly the same and I was told they were Aphaenogaster sp. lol I looked around online and they do sort of look like Aphaenogaster sp.

[StormDancer]

They are incredibly similar. Novomessor are larger though, at least from what I've seen. Their diets are also vastly different from the research I have done. Novomessor are harvester ants, they eat seeds. Aphaenogaster are insect eaters, not seeds. Offer both types of food and observe the workers. If they collect and eat seeds then the identification is narrowed to just a few species. I would use a semi claustral set up to offer food since many of the species mentioned are semi claustral. It's difficult to know for sure.

[Dearth335]

Those look like Acromyrmex versicolor, a fungus grower!

[StormDancer]

The head is the wrong shape for acromyrmex versicolor.

[ArizonaAntGuy]

I agree with pogonomyrmex .

I think it is novomessor

Thank you for your suggestions!

[ArizonaAntGuy]

Novomessor is my guess as well. They have no beards which is a defining feature of pogonomyrmex. But she is still a harvester ant. I'd be willing to bet if you look around your house there are skinny long legged workers running around who are also lacking beards. I have three of them currently and mistook them for pogonomyrmex until I watched AntsCanada thanksgiving videos on the honeypot and harvester ants. Drew's collection. Novomessor are the ones he has housed in the cement nest.

I actually think you are right about her being novomessor. There is a large ant hill outside in my backyard. Next to it they have a large graveyard/dump site where there are a bunch of old seed husks and other debris. As of today my first queen has two nanitics in her test tube. They are obviously much smaller than the workers I see outside, but they look pretty similar. Here's a picture of my new nanitics, sorry the quality isn't as good as it could be.

[ArizonaAntGuy]

Did you have to offer your queens anything to eat between the time you caught them and the time they produced eggs? Or between your last post and now, if their first workers haven't hatched?
I have a queen that looks very similar to yours. I found her in our garage two days ago.

I know it's typically best to leave the queens alone, but I check on them about twice a day... I have put tiny drops of honey in my test tubes and they seem to appreciate it. I have tried small seeds like sesame, flax, and poppy but they didn't seem too interested. They moved them around a bit through, I thought they might be saving them for their nanitics. I have been feeding them honey about once every two weeks since I didn't know specifically what species they were, and I was afraid that they weren't fully claustral.

[StormDancer]

You might even offer a small insect too. Fruit fly or cricket leg lol. Despite being seed eaters, they might appreciate having a little meat.

[Samuelpr1]

I knew it was a novomessor, I never had it but I saw the photos and I realized, the faster I would say it was aphaenogaster than pogonomyrmex.

And if you can upload another photo that the one that is there is not seen

Greetings.