ANTSTORE World of Ants

[4mykids]

I have 6 Queen carpenters I found this summer 5 of which have layed eggs and a few have hatched after some time.

The hatched ants are very small while the Queen looks huge next to them. The hatched ants have not left or tried to leave the tube yet. I have honey water for them but they have not taken it yet. Almost all of my other Queen ants (species unidentified) have layed eggs and a few have hatched as well. I have a huge red Queen as well that has a dozen or so eggs in the tube with her also.

I need some help with one particular HUGE Queen I found in my back yard at night. I thought it was a huge beetle because it was flying around and when it finally landed, I saw how HUGE it was. Anyway, that was a month ago and till this day it just sits in a container and still has it's wings. It is HUGE! My Carpenter Queens are big but this one is much bigger, this is the biggest ant I have ever seen. I had it in a test tube but it could not turn itself around so I put it into a container with a cotton ball of honey water. It is agressive as well. Could this be a termite Queen?

I have read much of these post on this forum and thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

[Jan-Hendrik]

have you got a pic?

i saw some Fly how lock like Queens

3cm long

[miszt]

does it look like this...



if so its a wasp not an ant

[4mykids]

Hello Jan-Hendrik,

I have a digital camera and took a few pics but it really doesn't give a close up shoot without getting blurry.

It is just about the size of an American quarter. It's wings go out farther then it's body so it looks HUGE!

Nice to look at but I wish it would do something -

[4mykids]

Thanks but it's not a wasp.

It is all black and it is an ant for sure.

I'm not confinced it is a Queen but if it was a male wouldn't it be dead by now?

[Skippy]

I have fear 4mykids ,you wrote all info about that queen very frightfully
so ... you could to discover ,if is it ant by this picture ,ants have diagonal antenna like on this picture

...if is it really ant ,I wanna see some picture ans I wish to your new queen long live and many eggs .... eh I wrote this topic before yours ,so ... yes If it is male ,it will die soon

[Varban]

does it look like this...



if so its a wasp not an ant

That looks nothing like the wasps i know

[MrILoveTheAnts]

First off, saying it's a HUGE queen is a very general term. What some might consider huge in one part of the world could seem modest in another part. Some Atta queens are known to be 25mm long. Saying it's the size of an American quarter is helpful but not everyone on a European board are likely to know this.
Second, from the provided information I would say it is a Camponotus species. Camponotus pennsylvanicus is about the only one that is the size you mention and all black. Other similar species in the Camponotus genus tend to have splashes of red on their thorax area, or gold on their legs.
C. penn is located in eastern states and it's workers tend to have gray or brown hair all over their abdomen. C. modoc is found in western states and has much less hair. I'm sure there are a few others I'm not familiar with.

I recommend placing some food (a very small amount) directly into their tube, right next to the ants themselves and modestly disturb the colony. I have awful luck with these colonies. Foraging is done by workers that are a few weeks old but the colony could starve to death in the mean time. So it is important to get them some food until good foraging habits form.

[4mykids]

MrIlovetheants - First off???? I'm not following you.

It is one ant not a colony.

I remember reading your comments from the Ant Farm board I recently visited and they were pretty sarcastic there. Please keep them there.


Hello Skippy, that picture really helps. I do my best to get a close up for you to help some more. Thank you.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't think anyone from Europe will know how long a US quarter is.

[Jan-Hendrik]

after the pic:

no, could be a Queen.

The Fly war black

[nepenthes_ak]

4mykids, he was making a suggestion for in the future if it IS a queen.

[MilitANT]

I'd love to see a picture of the specimen some time. What if he found a new species? Don't want to jump the gun but the idea is kinda of exhilarating.

[nepenthes_ak]

Then he would have to let up his ant and send it to A myrmecologist to have it recognized, and put into the books. What I would do though is inform them, let the colony grow a bit, and preserve them and send a few workers to the Myrmecologist. But With out a photo its kind of hard to say.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Even if it is a known species it may yet be new. As with what happened with our Tetramorium caespitum, genetic research revealed it to actually be 2 different species in America, I think 7 or 9 in total world wide. A similar thing is likely to happen with American Lasius species. I don't think credit of such a discovery is likely to go to anyone besides the person doing the research since the ants have been known and encountered for years.
Though it has been known to happen rarely, even in America.