The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Two weeks ago I was sitting in my work truck a the hotel (working out of town/state) and happened to look down and saw this girl running by. Of course I'm not home in Alabama and have been avoiding hunting queens because I can't take them home with me but a guy I work with wants to start a colony so I grabbed her up. She's a Camponotus nearcticus (smaller species of the common known Camponotus pennsylvanicus) Queen better know as a Black Carpenter Ant. She's been in a test tube for 2 weeks and has 3-5 eggs already. Only one egg is seen in the pictures and that's because as soon as I bothered her she grabbed up the other eggs and took them into the cap end of the test tube to hide them. Below is some pictures of her standing over one egg under her head. The guy I work with and his son are excited to hear she is laying eggs already. Wish I had my better macro lens for my phone.

This is a Formica species, although the view through whatever container this is kind of obscures the details for a species-level ID. I hesitate to say Formica lasiodes, although something from the pallidefulva group would also be suitable.

Batspiderfish wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 07, 2018 6:33 am

This is a Formica species, although the view through whatever container this is kind of obscures the details for a species-level ID. I hesitate to say Formica lasiodes, although something from the pallidefulva group would also be suitable.

Yep you are correct, I did further research last night and found this out. The spike before the gaster was what clued me in on it. Thanks for confirming it Batspiderfish.