Need confirmation on species. Temnothorax or Tetramorium?

Help with identifying the species your ants

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kykel09
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:31 pm
Location: Charlottesville, VA

Need confirmation on species. Temnothorax or Tetramorium?

Post: # 41490Post kykel09
Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:29 pm

Hey everyone! In advance, thank you for any help you can provide. I traded a Lasius Neoniger last year for this queen. She has been slow in producing brood but is definitely not infertile. Not sure if her wing has contributed to that. I intend on clipping it soon to help her out.

But anyway, I traded a Lasius Neoniger queen for what I thought was supposed to be a Tetramorium. However, when her first ninantic came out, it was orange. I thought maybe it was soft but then its color never changed. 2 and half weeks later, still orange. This made me curious as most tetramorium are very dark in color where I live, often black. Even more confusing is that the queen looks extremely close to a Tetramorium, dark black whilst her worker is transluscent orange. So, I did some research, looking at tetramorium and other various species and it occurred to me that Temnothorax also have spikes [propodeal spines] just like Tetramorium, but the propodeal spines on Temnothorax are often very long and thin whilst this queens are short and stubby like Tetramorium. But again, I'm not understanding why the worker is so drastically colored differently from the queen. Is this normal for Tetramorium workers? I also think that the worker itself may have a propodeal spine as well but it's hard to tell.

Pics:
Queen and worker together. For size comparison. You can also see the propodeal spine on the queen on her right side.
Image

Blurry Worker photo so you can see their size. About 1 and a half to 2 mm in length.
Image

Queen Length, about 7-8mm:
Image

Worker Pic. Looks like the worker has a propodeal spine but its blurry and the worker was so small that this was really the best shot I could get where you could see it.
Image

Queen and Worker. Here you can really see the color differences. This is a worker who is now almost 2 weeks old. Color hasn't changed. The queen is dark. Could be a really dark red but she looks black. I'm not sure. But this picture really shows the color of the ant over my copper colored ruler. Translucent orange, almost yellow.
Image

Final photo. Queen's propodeal spine.
Image
Charlottesville, VA GAN Farmer
Seller of 3D Printed Nests

Owns:
Camponotus nearcticus
Camponotus castaneous
Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Phiedole bicarinata
Tetramorium immigrans
Forelius pruinosis

Pabloof7
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:39 pm
Location: Spain

Re: Need confirmation on species. Temnothorax or Tetramorium?

Post: # 41522Post Pabloof7
Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:16 pm

Yep it is a tetramorium and do you know how I can trade a tetramorium queen
Keeping:
x1 Tapinoma erraticum
x2 Lasius niger

Founding:
x7 Camponotus
x1 Unknown

Wishlist:
Tetramorium sp

🐜❤️

JustCliff
Posts: 85
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:03 am
Location: Ohio

Re: Need confirmation on species. Temnothorax or Tetramorium?

Post: # 41638Post JustCliff
Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:58 pm

Don't know if this is tetramorium but I can say that this isn't temnothorax.

The queens aren't that much larger than the workers, unlike tetramorium. An entire temnothorax colony naturally lives in an acorn, she looks a bit too large to fit into an acorn with all of her workers and brood. :D
Keeper of:
Temnothorax curvispinosus x2
Camponotus nearcticus
Brachymyrmex depilis
Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Founding:
Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Camponotus herculeanus

kykel09
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:31 pm
Location: Charlottesville, VA

Re: Need confirmation on species. Temnothorax or Tetramorium?

Post: # 41643Post kykel09
Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:23 pm

Pabloof7 wrote:
Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:16 pm
Yep it is a tetramorium and do you know how I can trade a tetramorium queen
I don't. Our trade was arranged through the AntsCanada GAN. You could check there to see if there are any GAN farmers for your country and try trading through them.
Charlottesville, VA GAN Farmer
Seller of 3D Printed Nests

Owns:
Camponotus nearcticus
Camponotus castaneous
Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Phiedole bicarinata
Tetramorium immigrans
Forelius pruinosis

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