The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I don’t know if you will be able to identify this ant because I do not know when it had its nuptial flight. I was walking through the woods when I saw a dead dogwood tree. I decided that I would push I down because I did not want it fall and hurt something. When I pushed it down I saw that there was a queen ant in a claustral chamber with one Nanitic worker and a clutch of 5-7 eggs. I had a small Tupperware with me and I immediately swept up the Nanitic and queen and carefully picked up the eggs and put thin int the Tupperware with the tip of my pocketknife. Once I got home I moved the queen into a test-tube portal with one test tube filled with water. I fed them with one tiny drop of honey administered by a toothpick and one dead fly I caught. I have kept the ants since the 27th of September. So far they have eaten 1 fly and 3 tiny drops of honey.

The ant queen measures approximately 7-10 mm long (although it is very difficult to measure her size since she is hiding in the back of test-tube portal), and she is black with slightly red legs. The worker is approximately 3-5 mm long and is all black. I found her in Mooresville North Carolina which is north of Charlotte. I think it might be a Camponotus sp. ant but if I told you I would be guessing.

What ant is this? How often should I feed them? I feed her 2 drops of honey and 1 fly once a week. Am I giving enough food, or am giving too much food? I have 2 test tubes full of water on one side of the nest. Is it too humid to have two test tubes filled with water in one test-tube portal? Does this species of ant require hibernation? If so what temperature should they be kept at, and for how long? Is a test tube portal too big for only a queen and one Nanitic worker, or should I move them into a test tube. Should I check on them once a week to feed them or should I just leave them alone for a month?

These are the pictures. The first one is pretty blurry but the camera would not focus.
https://imgur.com/a/uXmaa

i think its a type of camponotus, it should only need around a drop of honey a week and the water is fine i had lasius and it only needed the water test tube it was in. make sure its in a dark place and undisturbed.
good luck.

Thanks for posting so quick. Can you by any chance identify the exact species of Camponotus? Does this species of ant require hibernation? If so how cold should I keep them and for how long? Should I give then any protein source or are they just fine with honey until this next clutch of eggs hatches? Sorry for all the questions. This is the first queen I have found that has eggs and I am very excited.

WilliamCarrigan wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:42 pm

Thanks for posting so quick. Can you by any chance identify the exact species of Camponotus? Does this species of ant require hibernation? If so how cold should I keep them and for how long? Should I give then any protein source or are they just fine with honey until this next clutch of eggs hatches? Sorry for all the questions. This is the first queen I have found that has eggs and I am very excited.

Don't know the species. Maybe C. pennsylvanicus. You should keep feeding them fruit flies and honey at the same schedule you've already been doing. They hibernate. I'll be hibernating my Camponotus hyatti at 45 degrees but, they come from a warmer region and it doesn't get as cold as in Carolina so you'd probably have to do colder temperatures.

antsRlife wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:16 pm

i think its a type of camponotus, it should only need around a drop of honey a week and the water is fine i had lasius and it only needed the water test tube it was in. make sure its in a dark place and undisturbed.
good luck.

How did you have lasius if you live in Australia? There are no lasius here, mate. Must have been an iridomyrmex

I thin I also have this species of ant in my backyard, the size sounds right and I live in NC too. They live under a pile of rocks, so I guess they like to make their colonies under debris, because yours was under a tree. also, in the spring I plan to dig the colony up to find the queen, any suggestions as to how i should go about this?

Looks like C. Modoc