ANTSTORE World of Ants

[tomorrownight]

Have just returned from Sicily with about 15 Crematogaster scutellaris queens, 4 HUGE Messors (possibly aureanis) queens, some other strange but massive orange and black ones and a smaller black Messor queen (i guess Messors anyway...)

There were many others including tiny tiny grey/orange ones (thought they might be Argentine ants) but also found a red and black, tiny worker with Soliders - I thought PP were the only solider caste holding ant in europe... anyway

I was wondering what the best setup for these would be? The appear to prefer it less humid, as a normal Lasius niger setup of damp test tube killed them and at the moment I have them in a cup with dry tissue paper.

What would people suggest?

[baumarkthammer]

Messor arenarius doesn´t live in europe. You probably got a Messor capitatus.

The black ant with soldirs that you found probably also was Pheidole pallidula, I already saw them in many colors from a very light yellow to nearly black. Also they are not the only ant with soldirs in europe, it is the only Myrmicinae with soldirs since Camponotus truncatus also has soldirs.

All Crematogaster scutellaris queens that I cought in Croatia have raised their brood in normal testing tubes without a problem.
Two were left behind in testing tubes without water which were closed airtight, I forgot them in my backpack and found them some month later. Surprisingly those queens also raised 6 workers as all the other queens.
The queens are very strong, since in nature they found their colonies in little sticks on trees, hottest spot at day and coldest at the night, at hot periods they don´t have a drop of water for month and in rainy weeks they are always very wet and flooded.
So the queens normaly don´t have any problem to found.

As I said I already had success with very many Crematogaster scutellaris queens and normal testing tubes.

Do you keep all the queens together or did I missunderstand you?

[tomorrownight]

ive kept all the Crematogasters together at the moment, before i will split them into different tubes. The bizzare orange/black, very large one (not sure what that is, any ideas?) is on her own and also so is the smaller black one i found and the larger black ones (althought they seem to attack other ants if they are together...)

[baumarkthammer]

Any kind of pictures would help.^^
I can´t tell by color alone.

Seperate the Crematogaster, they kill each other very fast.
You can give them a normal test tube with a piece of wood. When you fear that it might be to moist, give them much space at the testing tube so they can move their brood forth and back.

[tomorrownight]

ok thats great, thanks alot,
what about the Messor capitatus? What sort of conditions should i put them in?

I will put some pictures up soon! thanks for all your help!

[baumarkthammer]

I keep my Messor capitatus in normal testing tubes, normal size and quite moist. They don´t seem to have any problem with a quite moist nest.

By the way I just remembered that the Queens of Messor capitatus and Messor wasmanni look nearly identical. So you may just call it Messor sp., I would have to research how to tell them apart.

[tomorrownight]

Ok I've done the pictures mostly Crematogaster, some messors (possibly capitalus) and a couple of others unidentified!:









[img]http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/390477_10150385060887173_507602172_8234225_2084283245_n.jpg
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These were around at the same time as well, but absolutely tiny, I thought possibly there were Argentine ants as they looked about right but I didnt have a microscrope with me so couldnt check.






I had no idea what these were, they seem alot more brown in real life

[tomorrownight]

Obviously these ones are dead! i collected the dead ones when i found them as well.

Update on my queens-

most do not seem to be laying at all, (infact all, ive only possibly seen one egg amongst all 15 queens!). Im afraid that the conditions are not right (they are kept in the light but this is fine for [L Niger] Lasius niger.) what about radiation from Customers scanner (xray.)

[tomorrownight]

thats Customs scanners (as in at the airport)

[baumarkthammer]

Picture 1 and 2 is Crematogaster scutellaris, a very light one, they can be much darker. But it is Crematogaster scutellaris for sure, the only other species it could be is Crematogaster schmidti but they have a redish throrax. Crematogaster scutellaris can be found from this light color to very dark color.

Pictures 3 and following show a Messor queen, which could be a Messor structor queen but I´m totally not sure.

Picture 4 since the red queen is half covered by the other queen so I can´t tell if it is a Crematogaster schmidti or a Camponotus lateralis. Those two species look very alike because Camponotus lateralis camuflages as Crematogaster scutellaris/Crematogaster schmidti. I would have to see the whole queen.

Picture 7 shows a Messor queen. It could be a Messor capitatus or wasmanni

Picture 6 is a male I think it could be a Messor male.
Picture 8 also shows a male but I think that is a Camponotus male as can be seen in the much higher thorax. The flight of them was very long ago but sometimes the males can still be found because they fligh away when a nest is opened. Most Camponotus (exept Camponotus piceus I think) get their males and young queens in the year before they fly.

How big is the queen on the pictures 9 and 10?

[tomorrownight]

Shes pretty big, about the size of the bigger Messor queens. (2.1 cm possibly at a guess?)

[baumarkthammer]

Hmm I have to admit, that it remainds me of Camponotus herculeanus at the moment but Camponotus heaculeanus normally doesn´t have this red/brwon segment of the gaster. That red/brown first segment of the gaster is a way to tell Camponotus ligniperdus and Camponotus herculeanus apart. So I would say it is a Camponotus ligniperdus.

[tomorrownight]

ive actually got a Camponoutus herculeanus here, i dont think she is that... but i dont really know - arent they from north of the alps and in Germany and so on?

[tomorrownight]

oooh what about Camponotus cruentatus?

[mtrein]

My Camponotus ligniperdus is darker than what is displayed in the pictures, but apart from that... Looks like ligniperdus.