The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I have that same dream, except for C. lineolata or cerasi. Amd yes, I'm almost 100% sure she's Crematogaster laeviuscula.

Some more pictures, two from a week or so ago, and one from the last couple days.





In that last one you can get see a pretty good look at larva, in what is probably the stage right before pupa, if I can guess it's size based on the size of the queen.

And thank you AntsDakota, I think you are 100% on laeviscula, the images on Google I could find look almost exactly alike.

i got into ant keeping the same sort of way. i had an anonychromyrma queen land on my knee, at the time i didn't know until it bit me i grabed it by the wings and threw it(metaphorically speeking) into a test tube and i had a great colony until they died a few weeks ago

Sorry to hear that, AntsRlife!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and I've got some good update photos!

Her first nanitics eclosed(I don't know if that's the right term for ants without pupae) while I was away for the weekend, so I've got a couple pics after a few more became active. It's been about one new worker every two days or so now.


I've also started to feed them, once I got home and noticed she had 2 mobile workers. Just a tiny amount of honey, but it was always gone by the end of the next day, even when I gave them a slightly larger dollip of honey, there wasn't even any residue when I checked back later. I'm not sure how they fit it all in their bellies.

As of just yesterday Queen Cream has five workers now, with another one that was waving it's antennae, and I noticed that one or two of the workers always seem to be hanging out near the cotton plug. I have read that that's a sign they might be getting ready to go out to forage, so when I was feeding our cat, I decided to add just the tiniest drop of wet food I could as well as the usual honey.
They seemed to approve, and 3 were crowded around feeding from it when I put them back in their dark place.

Even Queen Cream walked over, tapped both piles with her antennae, and then went back to her brood pile.

WOW!! congratulations. REALLY! Crematogaster is known a a harder species to keep and found.
also how long did it take to go from egg to worker?

Almost exactly 2 months to go from capture to first nanitics. I caught her on the 26th of june, got her out of the tupperware and into a test tube on the 28th, and she had started laying eggs by the next day. Then, August 21st was when I first noticed that two workers had eclosed. Up to six now, as well.

You could probably get faster workers with a better setup, she's being kept indoors in an air-conditioned location. She's on the far side of the apartment from the thermostat, near my computer, which probably gets her a little warmer than the rest of the apartment, but still cooler than the Oklahoma summer that I found her in.

And yeah, me and my wife has been joking that Queen Cream is just about the chillest possible ant. I've definitely been too enthusiastic about checking on her; pulling her out of the dark more than the every 2 weeks I saw recommended for most Crematogaster sp. Maybe the laeviuscula is more easy-going then average for its Genus?

From what I hear Crematogaster laevascula is a small species of Crematogaster. I've also heard that your average Crematogaster species takes 3 months to develop. These species are larger than laevascula, so they take longer.

Crematogaster is the first type of ant I've ever had and I love the fact that they have a heart shaped gaster that they wiggle to communicate stuff to others in the colony.

These queens must love to be captured because one just walked up to me