HARVESTER ANTS EUROPE (GR). Any help?

[AntibioticLogic]

Hello, recently I decided to build my first ever ant farm. And so I collected these wonderful ants from a nearby colony. The drones seem to be from a different colony but of the same species. The Queen(?) is missing two legs and I found it randomly strolling around. It seems old and lethargic, it's movements are very slow. I need help regarding the Queen, since I don't know if this is a queen or not and also I need help identifying these ants. The queen is definitely larger than the rest of the ants but it lacks the wings and triangular head shape of the drones. Regarding the ant species I think they are Messer barbarus but I'm not sure. I think they are definitely harvester ants because they seem to love seeds. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

https://ibb.co/zPFvFd3 Drone
https://ibb.co/xF77240 Drone
https://ibb.co/s1WTXGZ Queen(???)
https://ibb.co/cJLhrLL Queen comparison
https://ibb.co/n8gQbSS Regular ants

[danielw]

Hi

I may be wrong but your drones look more like unmated queens. Male drones will generally have small heads and long antennae and a more wasp like appearance.

Your "queen" also seems to lack the enlarged thorax(mesosoma) that housed her wing muscles and scars where the wings were.

Where did you collect these ants? Were they all in one nest that you excavated??

[cjerg9]

Hi there,

In regards to the queen like ant it is highly unlikely isn’t a queen. Perhaps just a major worker. She should look similar to the alates if she is a queen. The ant has a very small thorax and I cannot see any wing muscles/scars. I believe you are right on the species and if that is so in this image here

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdmGx6xMZoTYoFLG77-m1E78KOqfCnrFKWbg&usqp=CAU

you can see the comparison between minor and major workers which looks a lot like the ant you found. If you can get some side photos of the thorax on the ‘queen’ ant that would be great just to confirm

[AntibioticLogic]

I believe you are right. I was picking up ants in an area with a lot of "factions" but they were all of the same species. I actually have collected some really big winged ants (maybe queen's) and some smaller winged ants (drones perhaps). I think their heads are actually different. Will they mate if I leave them all together? Here's 2 more photos.
https://ibb.co/N2SDc56
https://ibb.co/2vsTSz8
Thanks a lot for the help.

[AntibioticLogic]

And yes it is definitely not a queen. I literally started learning yesterday so thanks for the help. It looks like a major worker yes. My question is how could these Queens be walking around since I didn't excavate the nest to find them. And they were many (3-4 big ones)

[danielw]

Ants from the same nest will not mate with each other and will mate during flight.

[AntibioticLogic]

Aren't the queen's supposed to stay underground?

[danielw]

Have you recently had rain in your area??
Virgin queens and drones will exit the nest periodically after rain to "check" if the time is right to fly.

I live in Australia and see this often with iridomyrmex purpureus, rhytydoponera and other species.

They generally do not stray far from the nest though. Did you find yours close to a nest entrance??

[AntibioticLogic]

Hello, yes the conditions you are describing are exactly right, I went to check exactly after the rain had stopped. It's been very warm outside but then it started raining. It turns out these "drones" that I found are actually winged queens, but I think I found actual drones too. I am very interested to see whether or not they will mate in captivity. If not what should I do with them? I have captured nearly 20-25 ants but will they accept another queen? Should I release the rest of the ants? What should I do to start a colony?