Colobopsis obliqua
Colobopsis obliqua is the only Colobopsis species that is restricted to the southeastern United States. A similar species to Colobopsis impressa, obliqua queens can be difficult to distinguish from impressa when you first spot them. They essentially look like a slightly scaled down version of impressa with only one yellow band across their gaster instead of several. The head of obliqua is slightly more elongated and with sharper edges around the front of the face.They're very small -- queens about 5 millimeters and minor workers about 2.5 millimeters. It's weird to think that this species was considered Camponotus just a few years ago.
On the night of May 21st, I collected a few C. obliqua queens. Their nuptial flights basically take place at the same time as impressa, but I find far fewer queens of obliqua compared to impressa. I combined some of the queens together and kept some on their own.
Here is a comparison picture I made, with impressa on the left and obliqua on the right.
June 15, 2019
All eggs and small larvae for now.
Edited by Aaron567, June 15 2019 - 4:01 PM.
