My Pheidole morens queen, super small!

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Aaron567
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Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 4:38 pm
Location: Pensacola, Florida USA

My Pheidole morens queen, super small!

Post: # 10034Post Aaron567
Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:33 pm

This isn't a journal, but just a post showing one of my queens that doesn't have a journal.

I have a few small ant species, Brachymyrmex patagonicus, Pheidole moerens, and another unknown Pheidole species. My unknown Pheidole queens (I have two) are about 5 mm and my Brachymyrmex patagonicus queens are about 4 mm. However, my Pheidole moerens queen is smaller than a fire ant major worker. She is so tiny that when I caught her, I really wasn't sure if she was a queen or not. I caught her on July 23, and now she has pupae! She probably has 2 or 3 but I was having so much trouble being able to see them because the brood is so tiny. I had to take macro pictures on my camera to be able to even see any pupae at all. This is my smallest ant species, with my largest being Dorymyrmex sp.

Here is the Pheidole moerens queen with her brood. Just wanted to share this extremely tiny queen on here, so everyone can know how tiny some queens can be. Thanks for reading!

These macro pictures might make her look a lot larger than she is. She is literally 2-3 mm in length.

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ooper01
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Re: My Pheidole morens queen, super small!

Post: # 10038Post ooper01
Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:17 pm

I'm amazed you even saw her, let alone captured her. I had a neighbor bring by some ants he had collected, asking me if they were queens or not. He had two that were so tiny, like this one you have here (2mm to 3mm) that I could barely even tell there was anything in the test tube. Turned out to be Solenopsis molesta. I have them here. Going to see if we can get a colony going.
~ ooper

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