Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Help with identifying the species your ants

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katykat5099
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Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:02 pm
Location: Selkirk

Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Post: # 35898Post katykat5099
Sun May 13, 2018 10:49 am

So I found a colony I think is super unique and I have no idea what species they are and really want to know.

The workers are Black and there are some bigger ants that are very agressive within the colony that are completely red except the gaster is black. They hurt when they bite. The workers do not hurt and not all of them bite.
The red and black ants that are big, some are larger or close to the same size as a worker and some are much bigger but look exactly the same.

They all got really long legs. The largest red and black ant is the width of my pinky (I have very skinny fingers)

There is multiple queens. I think I found 3 but lost one. So I have two. They are also red and black like the other ones. But are kind of small for a queen.

They lived under a rock in my garden I was trying to clean up. Their home is kind of tilled now..

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qmmx7c0cezosz2t/AACL8b4aXrO0OkhksPkgDI87a?dl=0

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AntsGreece
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Location: Greece

Re: Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Post: # 36030Post AntsGreece
Thu May 17, 2018 1:33 am

link not working.. :)

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antnest8
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Re: Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Post: # 36035Post antnest8
Thu May 17, 2018 5:21 am

it is hard to tell but it kind of looks like Formica better pictures can help though.
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Batspiderfish
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Re: Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Post: # 36042Post Batspiderfish
Thu May 17, 2018 1:54 pm

Yup! A Formica social parasite. To further narrow down the ID, we need a clear view of the front of the head right above the mandibles. The sanguinea group of brood-raiding Formica will have a notch on its clypeus, but sadly these species are often unsuitable for captivity since many of them are dependent on a constant supply of host pupae. The raiders themselves don't do much at all inside the nest, and it's more akin to having a queenless fusca/pallidefulva/neogagates-group colony.
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katykat5099
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:02 pm
Location: Selkirk

Re: Ant Colony Idenfication (workers, queen, other info)

Post: # 36228Post katykat5099
Tue May 22, 2018 9:06 am

Thanks a lot for the info. Yeah I believe that is a raiding species. I have tons of these in my area and there always seems to be black ants with them. There are also much smaller ants that look similar but no red ants that were directly next to them. They were small, probably half the size of a piece of rice. And they had red body and everywhere else what black just like these black and red ants I talked about. Only difference is the black is more of a really dark looking brown.

Also those “raider” ants (I guess ill call them) laid eggs.

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