ANTSTORE World of Ants

[srenau]

Something stuck in the leg of a worker of Camponotus Ligniperdus, not a mite I thing, and surrounds the entire leg. Photos look:




I do not know what is it. It is rare, it seems a bug, it seems as if something had surrounded the leg, are not hair, eyes, antennae...

[Karsten1997]

Wow...
Maby a parasit?
A disease?
cancer?

[jkiefer]

Hello srenau,
it´s not only the leg, the whole body of your ant is covered with it... and it looks like a fungal infestation!
Maybe it´s a fungus from the genus Aegeritella, here you can find some information and photos about it: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
If it is so, your ants will be sooner or later dead!
Regards jkiefer

[JimmyVe]

I think its a fungus to, if possible remove the infected ants (and kill them) to save your colony.

[derameisige]

Hi srenau

This is the second known instance of Camponotus ligniperda being infested by such a fungus, probably of genus Aegeritella.
It would be interesting to know where you have collected the colony, or from where you have received it.

Aegeritella tuberculata has been found in Formica rufa und Formica (Serviformica) rufibarbis in NW-Spain: Espadaler, X. & Monteserín, S. 2003: Aegeritella (Deuteromycetes) on Formica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Spain. - Orsis 18, 13-17.

derameisige

[srenau]

Hi srenau

This is the second known instance of Camponotus ligniperda being infested by such a fungus, probably of genus Aegeritella.
It would be interesting to know where you have collected the colony, or from where you have received it.
derameisige

It is a colony AntStore bought over a year ago. Came clean. It's in a sandwich with sand - clay sterilized.

Thanks for your help.

[srenau]

A second working with the same symptoms in one of his legs. It's like a hard material, I can not remove or flatten. Could it be a kind of tumor charred? Photo:

[srenau]

I have three workers with the same kind of "fungus" in the same leg, the left front. I quarantined the three workers. One of them has dropped the "fungus" of the leg. Deputy photo. If that is a fungus, Could be a fungus, not mortal?