Why don't ants visit outworld?

[Ratkas]

Hi. My camponotus Maculatus Queen and 15 workers have quickly moved into their new permanent formicarium without issue. It's a small sized formicarium. Issue is that i rarely see them in the outworld. They have a liquid feeder as well as feeder trays for food but they just cluster up with the queen and eggs. 1 or 2 workers might come out once in a blue moon but runs right past and even over the food just to go back down the hole. I am starting to get worried that they might starve or something! Please help!

[Antloverhuman]

Dont worry. Ants wont let themselves starve to death. They might be hibernating or they have full repletes (ants that store food in their stomach. You can spot them easily as they have big fat gasters)

[Ratkas]

Phew! Thank you!

[SolenopsisKeeper]

I had a similar problem, but I discovered mine are nocturnal.


I did a little research, and here is what I found.
“ The Camponotus species targeted for this study possess the following distinguishing characters and are loosely referred to as the C. maculatus group herein:

1. The most striking character is the distinct occipital carina in minor workers (Fig. 1). This forms a ridge externally and probably serves to strengthen the anterior parts of the head (Snodgrass 1935), it is absent in major workers.

2. Strong dimorphism, i.e., workers encountered are mostly either major or minor, medium workers are non existent or very scarce.

3. The sides of the heads of major workers taper strongly to the front (Fig. 2) while in minor workers, the sides are mostly parallel and taper to the rear.

4. The vertex in major workers is concave or flat, in minor workers it is convex.

5. The scape and tibiae have plentiful short setae, raised up, more so in Australian than in African species.

6. Biology: (a) mostly nocturnal, (b) nests are in clay soil, never in sand, (c) entrances to nests are well hidden, (c) strong attraction to honey bait at night, (d) domination at honey bait, (e) quickly scatter when disturbed by torch light.

Other Australian species included in the C. maculatus group viz Camponotus spenceri, Camponotus extensus and Camponotus oxleyi are not considered here because they can be separated from the target species by the integument of the heads of the major workers which are covered with fine punctations and are matte whereas the target species are more smooth and glossy.”
It may be that they are nocturnal. Try feeding them a small piece of insect that they could easily carry back to the nest. If you wake up, and it is gone, they are most likely nocturnal.
https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Camponotus_maculatus_species_complex