Help Identifying Queen Ant 15th October Portugal

Help with identifying the species your ants

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pvfsm1
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:47 pm
Location: Portugal

Help Identifying Queen Ant 15th October Portugal

Post: # 52706Post pvfsm1
Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:11 pm

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On the 15th October there were a lot of nuptial flights all over the area where I am living.
In the morning you could see many ants flying and mating, in the afternoon there were queens on the floor desperately looking for a place where to start a new colony and on the following days you could still see the males on the walls (waiting to die?)
The queen were 10 to 12 millimeters.
I managed to catch some queens (could have caught many more they were all over the place and here are the pictures I took: https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNQlxixTpCOwU0pQ87_8ehxtQn4hUNLrqZ_vNIg?hl=pt-PT
It would be great if someone could help me identifying the species or genus ( I think they might be some kind of messor. I've read messor can have their nuptial flights in October but probably other genus can too.) They also look similar to Messor pictures i googled.
If they are Messor then according to Antmaps.org they can be one of these species but i have no idea which one
Messor barbarus
Messor bouvieri
Messor capitatus
Messor hispanicus
Messor lobicornis
Messor lusitanicus
Messor marocanus
Messor structor

Thanks for any help or comments.
Founding Camponotus Barbaricus

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Help Identifying Queen Ant 15th October Portugal

Post: # 52726Post AntsDakota
Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:08 am

pvfsm1 wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:11 pm
Image
Image
Image

On the 15th October there were a lot of nuptial flights all over the area where I am living.
In the morning you could see many ants flying and mating, in the afternoon there were queens on the floor desperately looking for a place where to start a new colony and on the following days you could still see the males on the walls (waiting to die?)
The queen were 10 to 12 millimeters.
I managed to catch some queens (could have caught many more they were all over the place and here are the pictures I took: https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNQlxixTpCOwU0pQ87_8ehxtQn4hUNLrqZ_vNIg?hl=pt-PT
It would be great if someone could help me identifying the species or genus ( I think they might be some kind of messor. I've read messor can have their nuptial flights in October but probably other genus can too.) They also look similar to Messor pictures i googled.
If they are Messor then according to Antmaps.org they can be one of these species but i have no idea which one
Messor barbarus
Messor bouvieri
Messor capitatus
Messor hispanicus
Messor lobicornis
Messor lusitanicus
Messor marocanus
Messor structor

Thanks for any help or comments.
From what I hear, most Messor are relatively the same when it comes to their care, behavior, and lifestyle. So it doesn't really matter what species of Messor you have. If you just want to know anyway, it is most likely barbarus, which is probably the most commonly kept species of Messor in Europe.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

pvfsm1
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:47 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Help Identifying Queen Ant 15th October Portugal

Post: # 52739Post pvfsm1
Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:06 pm

Yes I guess that regarding care it doesn't really matter what Messor species it is cause they all behave in a similar way and have similar diet, however I really want to know because I'm very curious about it.
I've been digging for information and found this spanish website that shows the nuptial flight season for different Messor species in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain)
https://mirmecologia.jimdo.com/fichas-especies/myrmicinae/messor/

So, based on that I can rule out Messor Lusitanicus, Messor Marocanus and Messor Structor as they usually have their nuptial flights in spring or winter and spring.
So if narrowed my list to 5 species and yes Messor Barbarus is one of them.

I also found this key: http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Key_to_Iberian_Peninsula_Messor_species but it is mostly for workers and also I'm not able to see some of the details with my camera.

Maybe it is boring for others but I really like to know which species I have and how do i tell one from another.
Founding Camponotus Barbaricus

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