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So I was on a walk and I found a large ant she had no wings and she was alone and I had some test tubes and cotton balls on me so I caught her, I put her in a test tube setup. Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/p2mklXy please tell me if she is fully claustral, semi claustral, or parasitic, or if she is just a large worker if you need more pictures or pictures from different angels please tell me.

Tanks19 wrote: ↑

Fri May 13, 2022 11:04 pm

So I was on a walk and I found a large ant she had no wings and she was alone and I had some test tubes and cotton balls on me so I caught her, I put her in a test tube setup. Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/p2mklXy please tell me if she is fully claustral, semi claustral, or parasitic, or if she is just a large worker if you need more pictures or pictures from different angels please tell me.

Is there a way to get a bit clearer photo? Maybe next to a common coin so I can estimate size?

It looks like a Formica spp. worker, but clear photos required to be sure.

Thanks for providing info but she has sadly died.

Tanks19 wrote: ↑

Sat May 14, 2022 4:59 pm

Thanks for providing info but she has sadly died.

Probably a worker… unfortunately a lot of ant species have workers that are similar to queens. Even I will get confused for a moment with some ants if it’s a queen or not, especially Ponera and Odonotmachus.

It’s good to make sure though, as recently while looking for queens, I saw what I believed to be Camponotus Floridanus minor workers… but one was a bit fast… it turns out, I missed tons of Pyramid ant queens. If only I would have caught more…

Yeah, but I thought she was a queen because she was alone but she was probably just foraging. Well if I see the same kind of ants then it will be confermed.

Tanks19 wrote: ↑

Sun May 15, 2022 11:18 am

Yeah, but I thought she was a queen because she was alone but she was probably just foraging. Well if I see the same kind of ants then it will be confermed.

Yeah, that’s another problem with Odontomachus. They rarely forage in groups larger than 2, and usually in groups of one. When they do forage in groups of two, it’s what antwiki describes as tandem running.

Tanks19 wrote: ↑

Sun May 15, 2022 11:18 am

Yeah, but I thought she was a queen because she was alone but she was probably just foraging. Well if I see the same kind of ants then it will be confermed.

Maybe go to the AntsCanada Youtube channel and then, search how to identify queen ants.

Joshua09 wrote: ↑

Thu May 19, 2022 5:16 pm

Tanks19 wrote: ↑

Sun May 15, 2022 11:18 am

Yeah, but I thought she was a queen because she was alone but she was probably just foraging. Well if I see the same kind of ants then it will be confermed.

Maybe go to the AntsCanada Youtube channel and then, search how to identify queen ants.

That’s not a great way… base it off behavior, for claustral queens, trying to dig chamber etc