16 replies to this topic

[ariaant]

Hello all,

 

Sorry that the pictures aren't that good, I hope to take some more when the queens get workers as I don't want to stress them out too much now.  I think they are some kind of large camponotus species. 

 

 

1. Location of collection (ie: park/area, city/town, state/province, country): Pine Valley CA, in parking lot/streets near trail heads

2. Date of collection (more important for ID's of queens): 4/23/2020, 9-10 pm, 67F at sunset, 63F at 9-10pm, recent rain in last week
3. Habitat of collection (ie: desert scrub, oak forest, riparian, etc.): Elevation 3200 or so ft, Mostly oak trees with some pine and numerous scrub in between
4. Length: 17mm, measured
5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture: Black head and thorax with orange gastor
6. Distinguishing characteristics (ie: one petiole node/two petiole nodes, length and orientation of any spines or bumps on the thorax or waist, head shape, eye size, shape of mandibles, number of antennal segments, etc.): Large queen?
7. Anything else distinctive (ie: odor, behavior, characteristics relative to others in the colony, etc.): Not identified
8. Nest description: 2 dirt nests identified with all orange workers (I think) measuring approximately 7-9 mm (eye ball) and majors/medians that were all almost as big as the queen to a few mm smaller.  Majors/medians were a mixture of orange and black. No alates appeared at entrance of the nest so i am not 100% sure they are of the same species.

9. Nuptial flight time and date: Not seen, assume it was recent as dead all black males seen on ground with wings
 

Thank you for any input

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 
• 

[FeedTheAnts]

I believe this is the species currently known as Camponotus us-ca02.

[Broncos]

That looks like a Camponotus US CA-02. Based on the bright orangish reddish gaster ant the black head and thorax. And I have one of my own.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RushmoreAnts]

I believe this is one of the largest Camponotus a Californian could get their hands on. 

[Somethinghmm]

17mm is too small for CA02

[TheAntGuy]

No its not something, but it could very well be C. Vicinus or C. Sansabeanus

[RushmoreAnts]

Still a nice find, regardless.

[ponerinecat]

Not every orange black ant is ca-02. Some sort of tanaemyrmex, 

[BugFinder]

Really nice find!!

[Vendayn]

Wow! That is the biggest queen I ever saw! I took out my ruler and measured it in the picture and that is bigger than even Atta queens! That queen is like a titan! Nice find! Looks really cool too. Hope you do good with them, but that is gonna need a huge formicarium to fit her in lol.

Edited by Vendayn, April 25 2020 - 9:43 AM.

[ariaant]

Thanks for the input all!  I have been looking for a camponotus queen for more then a year now and its great to finally get one.  Again thanks.

[YsTheAnt]

Camponotus sansabeanus. Camponotus vicinus will typically have the orange coloring extend onto the thorax, whereas Camponotus sansabeanus has it only on the gaster . Great find!

 

Nevermind! 

Edited by YsTheAnt, May 2 2020 - 11:18 AM.

[TheAntGuy]

I agree, sansabeanus seems right especially because I caught myself some sansabeanus only 2 days after this. The location seems correct for sansabeanus as well.

[Canadant]

Gorgeous ant

[dspdrew]

Judging by the pictures, that certainly looks like Camponotus us-ca02 to me. They're pretty uniquely colored, and this looks very close. The gaster is very uniform in color from front to back, C. sansabeanus are not. Most of all, there is almost no shininess to the entire thing as well, another characteristic of C. us-ca02. As for the length, I didn't measure it, so I can't be sure he isn't off by 2mm. It was also found in the same mountain range, right where there are other records of them.

[nurbs]

Looks like CA02. There's no other Camponotus in CA with that size and coloring. They are found in the Santa Ana mountains down to Baja CA, so your location collection also matches CA02.

 

You can compare yours with this:

 

[ariaant]

Thanks again for the further information. Hopefully i get workers in 2-3 months.   

 

Dspdrew: I was a little distracted/tired while measuring the queen with my 6 year old sneaking out of bed, having to go to work in 5 hours and the queen moving around. I did measure it twice: the first time it was almost 18mm the 2nd time it was just over 17mm.

 

Nurbs: Thanks for the video, it does look a lot like that.