The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Caught today, 6/16/18, at 9:50pm. I think she wandered in from the outside, as she was found crawling on my wall. She was not moving quickly, and has been very calm despite some difficulties getting to her.

Size - 8mm roughly, no ruler so using my eyes on this one. She's not as big as a Camponotus, but she's long. Possibly as big as 1cm, but no much bigger than that.

Pic is linked below, will continue to try for better shots but only have a camera on my phone to take pics with and since she's so dang small she's going to be a pain to get a clear shot with.

What I noticed on this one different from Solenopsis was head shape. She's got a squarish head which is the same size as her mesosoma. She's also got (hard to tell from the photo) a 2 segment petiole.

Gaster goes from red up near 2nd petiol segment to black at the end. Fade completes about 2/3 of the way across the gaster.

https://s8.postimg.cc/god9o94id/20180616_221459.jpg

I will continue to get better shots throughout tomorrow, she's resting in my desk drawer for now.

Not 10s after I posted, managed to coax her onto a white paper background and got my camera to focus in for a decent shot. Again, forgive terrible quality. I'm working with limited resources and a crap phone camera.

Managed to also get a terrible shot of her with mandibles open, so you can at least get general shape.

Pic 1: https://s8.postimg.cc/gqx5b1ifp/20180616_225932.jpg

Pic 2: https://s8.postimg.cc/3ziz4j0xx/20180616_225944.jpg

Pic 3: https://s8.postimg.cc/m2c1vrc85/20180616_225945.jpg

Wooo! Now to get the kits and everything ready, hopefully she mated.

Damn, was worried about this, she died and never laid any brood.

phoenixmastm wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:55 pm

Damn, was worried about this, she died and never laid any brood.

Sorry to hear that. There will be more queens.