thecowmaster: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 19:06)

oh...and the blacks only eat seeds

Messorus: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 19:21)

ok i capture some and messure them

The brown ones

worker- 3 mm

The blacks

Soldier- 8-7 mm
worker- 4-5 mm

Copia de PICT1046.JPG

Copia de PICT1048.JPG

Hello
This is Messor, but hardly no similiar to photos which are showed up... Messor is eating seeds, they love them... Seeds are their head food :grin:

Antlord: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 19:24)

The black ones are definitly Messors probably barbarus but I can't say for sure.

thecowmaster: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 20:19)

well... there aren't messor barbadus in south europe, rigth?

thecowmaster: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 20:28)

According to this web site:

http://www.lamarabunta.org/viewtopic.php?t=3212

The Messor Barbadus soldiers have there head red, and the soldiers i caugth didn't had the head red

So i looked at the others messor , and they are very similar to Messor capitatus , if they aren't messor capitatus

thecowmaster: Re: What these migth be? (11. Mär 2009 22:21)

and i found quite dificult to catch them with a tweezer...

Messorus: Re: What these migth be? (12. Mär 2009 15:29)

Hello Cowmaster...
Messor barbarus is polymorphyms specie- he have ,,more(poly) forms(morph)". These ants have 4 types of worker´s caste- minor, media, major and submajor. Minor are small workers, from 5 to 7mm, which are very common in colony.... Than we have here a media, workers bigger than minors, in size of 7.5 to 8.5mm... They appear first time in colony when colony have more than 30 minor workers.... Majors are ,,big head" workers in size about 9-10mm, but my sizes here are just drawn.... Than the 4 caste, caste of submajors are the bigest workers, with redish brown heads... Also queen of these specie can have(and usually have) red cephalus, and their red pigmentation is on their thorax and gaster too! But usually have these ants red just head.... You meant submajors, but just this and queen´s caste of this specie have red heads, so I think on your photos of Messor it coud by M. barbarus :grin:
Nice ant, this Messor. Take a look at http://www.messorbe.canalblog.com

thecowmaster: Re: What these migth be? (12. Mär 2009 20:36)

today i passed to there nest and i looked at the head of the really big ants and it was dark red

So it really might be a Messor barbadus

My messures migth be wrong because messuring ants in movement isn't very precisely.

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