First wild queen

[PuebloCO420]

My daughter and I just found this queen today, we are in Pueblo CO.
https://youtu.be/L_jVsTi9k7w

[Hawkeye]

Definitely looks like a queen to me, not sure about the species. I assume the container you have her in, was just a temporary housing?
She needs access to water.

[PuebloCO420]

It was temporary, we had just gotten home. I've had someone else suggest it could be a camponotus.

[Hawkeye]

It was temporary, we had just gotten home. I've had someone else suggest it could be a camponotus.

Could very well be, but a detailed picture would be helpful. At this point I think she might be C. modoc but is hard to tell. If she is, she should be about 1.5 cm, with her legs dark redish and her gaster should have thin golden lines on it.

In the clip it looks more like she has wide silver bands on her gaster? I remember there is a species with similar markings, but I can't seem to find it in the known American Carpenter ants in the USA.

You might want to post something in the Camponotus Crew thread (see signature) I am sure everyone there will be happy to help you identify her.

[sartwell90]

Hey, volunteer identifier from the Camponotus Crew, Hawkeye posted for some back up.

Honestly I'd say it looks like Camponotus nearcticus, I'm basing that off of a few observations. The legs are a slightly lighter color than the rest of the body, the eyes are larger in proportion to the head than many other similar Camponotus species, and the gaster appears slightly more elongate than other similar species.

C. nearciticus is a bicolor species that also has dark variants that are very hard to distinguish as bicolor, and the queens are far less bicolor to boot (unlike C. novaeboracensis which is clearly bicolor across most of it's color variants).

C. modoc is a possibility too, like Hawkeye mentioned - which you would want to look for yellowish bands marking the end of each pair of sclerites (the exoskeletal plates on the abdomen).

Since CO has an abundance of morphologically similar Camponotus species, it'll be easier to tell which with the presence of workers, so I hope you join the Camponotus Crew and keep us posted if it is fertile and you decide to try to help it raise it's colony!

[CANant]

Hello
Another Camponotus Crew member here...
What about camponotus herculeanus?
Knowing where you live might help too...

[Hawkeye]

Hello
Another Camponotus Crew member here...
What about camponotus herculeanus?
Knowing where you live might help too...

Herculeanus has a red thorax. He's from Colorado I believe?

[LasiusSapien]

bit of googling i think it looks a lot like Camponotus laevigatus but it also looks like others too, ants need to start wearing name badges make this a lot easier

[Hawkeye]

bit of googling i think it looks a lot like Camponotus laevigatus but it also looks like others too, ants need to start wearing name badges make this a lot easier

I thought about that species too, but that one is all black right? Well except for the markings and yellowish hairs of course. I thought in the clip her legs were redish?

[LasiusSapien]

bit of googling i think it looks a lot like Camponotus laevigatus but it also looks like others too, ants need to start wearing name badges make this a lot easier

I thought about that species too, but that one is all black right? Well except for the markings and yellowish hairs of course. I thought in the clip her legs were redish?

picture i saw had brownish legs let me find it