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 KNG5 |
Queen ant?? |
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Callow Ant Posts: 15 07/01/2008 3:13 PM |
Can you guys help me on identifying this ant, and if it's a queen? If she is a queen, what are the chances of her being able to lay fertile eggs, since she
still has wings? She's a big black ant, bigger than my Tetramorium queen. Her abdomen is huge. She has these weird hair looking things coming out of her
mouth. I found her in my pool. Sorry for the bad picture quality, the pictures were taken with my video camera. I am in Kansas City, MO if that helps with the
identification.
 
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antdude |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 17018 07/01/2008 3:19 PM
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She looks like a queen, but who knows if she is fertilizied or not. Keep her and see what happens.
Quote of the Week: "No, I'd prefer a cooler WITHOUT an ant-door, thank you..." --unknown. Ant/AntDude @
The Ant Farm (Personal Web Site), Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL), and The Ant Farm and Myrmecology Forum.
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KNG5 |
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Callow Ant Posts: 15 07/01/2008 8:40 PM |
I'm thinking maybe she's a carpenter ant...I've never seen any around here, but who knows.
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Reacker |
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Henchant Posts: 1379 07/01/2008 10:37 PM
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Yes, its a gueen.
A Camponotus species. I want to say C. pennsylvanicus but I'm far from expert on Camponotus so don't feel too sure until someone that knows the genus well chimes in. |
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Doctorant |
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Posts: 257 07/02/2008 1:44 PM Doc. and Soldier Ant
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The species is Formica subsericea, also getting ready to fly (after the next big rain) over on the St. Louis side of the state (lots of winged ones
and their pupae waiting in the nests). They typically fly right around the Independence Day holiday in this region. This is one of the easier species in the
Missouri fauna to rear in captivity. If your queen was climbing up on vegetation when you found her, she is almost certainly unmated. They drop to the ground
and break off their wings very shortly after mating, so the best way to be sure to find a mated queen of this species is to look for one that has already shed
her wings running about on a sidewalk or on bare ground. If you do get a mated one, you can give her a head start by giving her some worker pupae from an
established colony to speed up colony growth.
Here's a pretty picture of a worker of this species from myrmecos.net http://www.myrmecos.net/formicinae/ForSubs1.html |
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KNG5 |
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Callow Ant Posts: 15 07/02/2008 5:33 PM |
Well, it looks like we're getting that heavy rain right now! I found a carpenter ant worker and saved it from our pool. As I put it on the sidewalk a
Tetramorium queen ran out of the sidewalk crack.
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