Castes of C. novaeboracensis

[Hawkeye]

Quick question, how many of the smallest workers would you say there are? Could they be the nanitics from the first batch of eggs your queen laid?
They're usually smaller than workers, as they are fed by the queen only.

[AntiFreeze]

Hello folks!

Thanks for the invite to the Camponotus group. I will definitely join!
Major Update:

Firstly, it's getting quite cold here in AK so the last couple weeks have been spent sorting out our outdoor colonies and collecting all specimens, creating indoor formicaria/outworlds, making room, etc. Our family lives off-grid in a tiny little cabin and it has been a challenge fersure. But phew! Glad that it's done.

So, as for the update...I was totally off on my assessment of the aforementioned colony. The colony, which we called "The Mystery Box" because we kept changing what species we thought were in it based upon new sightings/data, was wild caught and placed directly into the tub for summer observation. I try to disturb our new colonies as little as possible, especially in the beginning, and rather take time to watch their behavior and adjustment with my kids/family. Because of this I had not dug into the nest at all until it was time to collect them for the move inside.
Boy was I surprised!

1) The C. spp colony I thought was novaeboracensis turned out to be herculeanus,

2) The smallest of the workers I saw belonged to a F. podzolica (I think?) colony that was co-habitating in the same original piece of wood I collected way back in May,

3) There was also a single or several colonies of Leptothorax or other Myrmicine ants that were very isolated and usually only occupied a small set of caverns in the wood. They were so small it is hard to be certain, but I believe they were the same L. retractus that I have several established colonies of already getting prepped for hibernation inside. They are one of my favorite ants as well, polygynous and laid back ants. Like the bonobos of ants, lol. I can leave their set-ups open and go make a sandwich, but I wouldn't try that with my F. aserva, podzolica, or herculeanus..,

4) The queen alates I thought were novaeboracensis may in fact have been F. podzolica alates (which I had never seen and did not realize had the same "Hyundai" "H" logo in red and black on there mesosoma! What are the chances? I should have known because they were not larger than the largest super majors...but without a true novaeboracensis alate to compare them to I just didn't make the leap of understanding.

So, in conclusion, I am bummed that in fact do not have C. novaeboracensis... but stoked that I have another colony of herculeanus. I did not find a queen in the C. h colony, though, but did find brood and two winged alates (no "H" on back). In the months since being placed into the tub someone was laying eggs and raising brood...the workers seem to possibly be favoring one of the winged alates so perhaps it is a fertile queen with wings? I hope so because otherwise the queen may have slipped through the collection process which would really bum me out...

Also, I now have an intact colony of podzolica, with queen. Super awesome because the F. aserva around here have been very very successful at invading the podzolica and other F. spp. on my land. I have found podzolica in mixed population with colonies of aserva, some with multiple aserva queens, but not til now have I found a healthy, un-parasitized, colony of podzolica. I hate to say it because some may think it ethically questionable, but I have been looking for one such colony of podz with queen so I can keep an in-house colony to observe enslavement, brood raiding, etc first hand.
I have a large established colony of aserva and a satellite aserva colony I use to study how aserva treats and absorbs workers and brood of the same species, of different ages, relative numbers, etc. I have needed to capture a complete colony of podz in order to continue the observation into how those same behaviors translate to closely related species (podz is one of the primary F. spp parasitized by F. aserva in my region, though I have found Myrmicine ants enslaved in wild aserva colonies, even C. spp! One aserva colony had every species of ant I have found on my land enslaved in the same large nest. It seems around here the sun never sets on the aserva empire.
Very interesting and I am really excited to build an enclosure where I can observe and monitor interactions between all these species. That's going to be my sorta over all goal over the next year or two. I am designing a multi-species setup with gates and compartmentalization in order to allow controlled contact without all out war. We're getting a 3d printer and CNC next month to start fabbing our own complex set-ups for the project so by the end of hybernation I'm hoping we will have a working prototype to move colonies into.

con't

[AntiFreeze]

On a side note: Anybody up here in AK who has a C. novaeboracensis queen? I will buy or trade with anybody who does. I am so bummed that I didn't have a colony of them and now want to find one more than ever, lol.

Also, the F. podzolica nest I found has a queen that is solid black, so is it not podzolica? If so, then the alates with the "H" on its back back have been ones that landed IN my open air tub, not that were heading OUT of it. If thats the case I missed an opportunity to catch either F. Podzolica or C. novaeboracensis queens that were looking for a nest site! Ugh, that makes me even more bummed about how this all went down. Another possibility is that the solid black queen (podzolica should have that "H" on her back) is yet a DIFFERENT F. spp. that enslaves podzolica. There are several others that occur in AK other than aserva and I am excited/curious as to what is going on in this new F. spp. colony I have found. It's like I can't find nests lately that aren't enslaved, have freeloaders, are parasitized, etc. This stuff is getting pretty Game of Thrones around here!

Anyways, thanks again for all your insights and interest. Sorry this was a long post already, so I will post pictures from the collection and move inside as soon as I get a chance to sort them out. Please let me know what you think about the new info I've got to work with. I'm fascinated by the turn of events from what I thought was going to be a straight-forward move indoors and there are still alot of un-answered questions: podzolica? or no?, C. herculeanus queen with wings from May? or queen slipped thru my fingers during collection?, all black parasite F. spp in podzolica nest? or no? etc? (note: I did not collect the small Myrmicine ants from this outdoor tub because they were all over last month, basically under every log, and we have a half-dozen colonies with multiple queens, dealates, and probably even fertilized workers. Leptothorax colonies are very different and strange than F. spp. and C. spp. I mean, fertile workers, what? So they are easy to catch and keep and we have too many because my kids really went crazy collecting them...they're slow and easy to catch for little kids)

You all rock and thanks again! Cheers!

AntiFreeze in AK