The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

All of the Camponotus queens pictured are Camponotus novaeboracensis. Congrats, I have 3 small colonies of this species myself.

We're going to need more than that to tell what species or at least genus it is. Pictures and measurements would be nice.

I highly suggest to keep in touch with local anters in your area.

I would like to add that the presence of Lasius niger in North America looks sketchy, and possibly could be mis-IDs of Lasius alienus . Anyways, just be patient and look around. Lasius alienus have started to fly in North America, and the other Lasius are soon to come. You just can't miss their larg...

That looks like a Camponotus americanus major (not super major, just major . Maybe she was foraging underneath it?

Cool! I've always wanted an obscure Formica species like this.

Welcome from Northern MA! :D We are pretty close geographically and have basically the same ant fauna around. We have a couple New England threads which are very, very helpful. One is on this forum, the other on Formiculture, already mentioned by Aqua. http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&...

To be honest, I would have to go with Lasius niger, or a closely related species like L. alienus. I tend to like the smaller ants better (No, not becuase the large ones are "scary"). A simple, plain example of an ecologically important, native ant species is what I like best.

I suggest asking the anters on Formiculture-a large portion of that forum is based in Cali.

Congrats on the queens