Help With a Confirmation Please

[KionaKeychain]

Hello! My son is very into all things Ants and he was gifted a “Wet Species” for Christmas that was described as a Bullet Ant. However its also labeled as a Camponatus Gigas (Dinomyrmex Gigas) and he brought to my attention that he doesn’t believe those are the same thing, and to my surprise I can not find anything on the Internet (except the listing from the company the specimen was bought from) confirming that a C.Gigas is in fact a bullet ant. I emailed the company it was purchased from and received a response saying quote “ The term "bullet ant" is a colloquial phrase that can be used to mean many different kinds of ants.” however I can’t find any record of that at all either and perhaps I’m just looking in the wrong place, I’d love to have some verification from someone who knows where to look and can help me give the correct Information to my 9 year old who wants nothing but the truth I appreciate your patience with me, as he didn’t get his love for ants from my side of the genetics and while I’m willing to learn I may have misspelled or said something incorrect. Please be gentle. I will include a picture of the wet specimen and the email I sent to the company.


(Edit: I am not able to add the attachments, it says Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached)

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Hello! My son is very into all things Ants and he was gifted a “Wet Species” for Christmas that was described as a Bullet Ant. However its also labeled as a Camponatus Gigas (Dinomyrmex Gigas) and he brought to my attention that he doesn’t believe those are the same thing, and to my surprise I can not find anything on the Internet (except the listing from the company the specimen was bought from) confirming that a C.Gigas is in fact a bullet ant. I emailed the company it was purchased from and received a response saying quote “ The term "bullet ant" is a colloquial phrase that can be used to mean many different kinds of ants.” however I can’t find any record of that at all either and perhaps I’m just looking in the wrong place, I’d love to have some verification from someone who knows where to look and can help me give the correct Information to my 9 year old who wants nothing but the truth I appreciate your patience with me, as he didn’t get his love for ants from my side of the genetics and while I’m willing to learn I may have misspelled or said something incorrect. Please be gentle. I will include a picture of the wet specimen and the email I sent to the company.


(Edit: I am not able to add the attachments, it says Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached)

I am a little confused how you got this spieces in Michigan. Since it is native to Southeast Asia… anyway, the term “bull ant” is a more general term, typically describing some ants in Asia and Austrialia. It is one of the largest known spieces of ant(In existence) and is single queened. I personally based on research(not 100%) that these could be considered bull ants, but are not “true” bull ants. They are quite large. Also, wet spieces means it LOVES humidity and wet nest. There is probably a preferred humidity percentage.


Edit: I just saw “bullet ant” and indeed it is a bullet ant, but I am stil confused how you got it in the US

[SYUTEO]

That's the funniest ant naming mistake I've seen . D. gigas has it's own common name (giant forest ant) and resembles nothing like bullet ants (Paraponera clavata). D. gigas is black with a red gaster while P. clavata is completely black and sometimes brown or dark red. The two are not even closely related to each other and are named with completely different reasons so I have no idea how the company could mistake them. I don't know how you got your ants since they aren't native to your area and it's illegal to ship live queen ants to other countries without a permit (except in Europe).

Try putting the pictures on something like Imgur.com or Google drive and send the link here.

[KionaKeychain]

It is a wet specimen, which is a deceased ant suspended in isopropyl alcohol. Sorry for the confusion, we no longer keep live ants.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

That's the funniest ant naming mistake I've seen . D. gigas has it's own common name (giant forest ant) and resembles nothing like bullet ants (Paraponera clavata). D. gigas is black with a red gaster while P. clavata is completely black and sometimes brown or dark red. The two are not even closely related to each other and are named with completely different reasons so I have no idea how the company could mistake them. I don't know how you got your ants since they aren't native to your area and it's illegal to ship live queen ants to other countries without a permit (except in Europe).

Try putting the pictures on something like Imgur.com or Google drive and send the link here.

Listen… there was probably some under the table dealing involved. Honestly, I have seen weaver ants for sale with international shipping. This I see as a HUGE problem, as they could become invasive. Hopefully, if they did, Antkeepers would swoop them up instead of leaving them in the wild. Ant company be like:
Wow it’s Camponotus!
In reality:
Invicta crawls
Also my info was from antwiki, which may be wrong, so sorry for that.

[KionaKeychain]

Hello! My son is very into all things Ants and he was gifted a “Wet Species” for Christmas that was described as a Bullet Ant. However its also labeled as a Camponatus Gigas (Dinomyrmex Gigas) and he brought to my attention that he doesn’t believe those are the same thing, and to my surprise I can not find anything on the Internet (except the listing from the company the specimen was bought from) confirming that a C.Gigas is in fact a bullet ant. I emailed the company it was purchased from and received a response saying quote “ The term "bullet ant" is a colloquial phrase that can be used to mean many different kinds of ants.” however I can’t find any record of that at all either and perhaps I’m just looking in the wrong place, I’d love to have some verification from someone who knows where to look and can help me give the correct Information to my 9 year old who wants nothing but the truth I appreciate your patience with me, as he didn’t get his love for ants from my side of the genetics and while I’m willing to learn I may have misspelled or said something incorrect. Please be gentle. I will include a picture of the wet specimen and the email I sent to the company.


(Edit: I am not able to add the attachments, it says Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached)

I am a little confused how you got this spieces in Michigan. Since it is native to Southeast Asia… anyway, the term “bull ant” is a more general term, typically describing some ants in Asia and Austrialia. It is one of the largest known spieces of ant(In existence) and is single queened. I personally based on research(not 100%) that these could be considered bull ants, but are not “true” bull ants. They are quite large. Also, wet spieces means it LOVES humidity and wet nest. There is probably a preferred humidity percentage.


Edit: I just saw “bullet ant” and indeed it is a bullet ant, but I am stil confused how you got it in the US

So it is a Bullet Ant??? Where can I find that info so my son can complete his research. Sorry for the confusion, but the ant is no longer alive. It’s a wet specimen meaning it’s suspended in liquid, not pinned- I grabbed a Imgur link for reference

https://imgur.com/gallery/ukztkwg

[KionaKeychain]

That's the funniest ant naming mistake I've seen . D. gigas has it's own common name (giant forest ant) and resembles nothing like bullet ants (Paraponera clavata). D. gigas is black with a red gaster while P. clavata is completely black and sometimes brown or dark red. The two are not even closely related to each other and are named with completely different reasons so I have no idea how the company could mistake them. I don't know how you got your ants since they aren't native to your area and it's illegal to ship live queen ants to other countries without a permit (except in Europe).

Try putting the pictures on something like Imgur.com or Google drive and send the link here.

Listen… there was probably some under the table dealing involved. Honestly, I have seen weaver ants for sale with international shipping. This I see as a HUGE problem, as they could become invasive. Hopefully, if they did, Antkeepers would swoop them up instead of leaving them in the wild. Ant company be like:
Wow it’s Camponotus!
In reality:
Invicta crawls
Also my info was from antwiki, which may be wrong, so sorry for that.

It is not a live ant. It is a wet specimen, which means it’s deceased and suspended in a liquid rather than pinned.

[KionaKeychain]

That's the funniest ant naming mistake I've seen . D. gigas has it's own common name (giant forest ant) and resembles nothing like bullet ants (Paraponera clavata). D. gigas is black with a red gaster while P. clavata is completely black and sometimes brown or dark red. The two are not even closely related to each other and are named with completely different reasons so I have no idea how the company could mistake them. I don't know how you got your ants since they aren't native to your area and it's illegal to ship live queen ants to other countries without a permit (except in Europe).

Try putting the pictures on something like Imgur.com or Google drive and send the link here.

I think I set this Imgur link up correctly, your response is almost identical to my email to them, I still don’t feel like it’s a bullet ant, but the person who commented above you says it is. Hopefully someone can proved a resource link so I can find where that info is, we would also love to have a reputable source to get info from, as my son is learning about new things every day, and man oh man he has a bunch of questions

https://imgur.com/gallery/ukztkwg

[SolenopsisKeeper]

That's the funniest ant naming mistake I've seen . D. gigas has it's own common name (giant forest ant) and resembles nothing like bullet ants (Paraponera clavata). D. gigas is black with a red gaster while P. clavata is completely black and sometimes brown or dark red. The two are not even closely related to each other and are named with completely different reasons so I have no idea how the company could mistake them. I don't know how you got your ants since they aren't native to your area and it's illegal to ship live queen ants to other countries without a permit (except in Europe).

Try putting the pictures on something like Imgur.com or Google drive and send the link here.

I think I set this Imgur link up correctly, your response is almost identical to my email to them, I still don’t feel like it’s a bullet ant, but the person who commented above you says it is. Hopefully someone can proved a resource link so I can find where that info is, we would also love to have a reputable source to get info from, as my son is learning about new things every day, and man oh man he has a bunch of questions

https://imgur.com/gallery/ukztkwg

It ain’t bullet. SUETYO knows. I took a guess based on a reliable sources. They are a large species of Carpenter ants

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Literly everyone selling them calls them bullet ants, but really they have a completly different common name also, how did you get them? Through what website?