16 replies to this topic

[Elraen]

Hi guys,

 

I found this colony yesterday. Workers are really small but the other guys ? They might be queens ? And if they are queens, how its possible to live together in same house ?

 

 

Edited by Elraen, May 3 2015 - 11:09 PM.

[drtrmiller]

No idea where you're located, but it looks like Polyrhachis.

 

Too little information to say very much with any certainty.

Edited by drtrmiller, May 4 2015 - 12:21 AM.

[dspdrew]

Try putting some of the information mentioned in this post.

 

http://www.formicult...t-a-new-thread/

 

Pictures alone are usually not enough to get a proper ID.

[Ants4fun]

Looks like Paratrechina to me.

[Ants4fun]

Maybe Paratrechina longicornis

[Miles]

I'd vote for southern european Formica. Regardless, we really need better pictures to even have a confirmation on the genus.

[Elraen]

I'm from Turkey - istanbul.. What you guys think about bigger ants ? queens ?

[dspdrew]

If you're asking about the two larger ones, yes, those are definitely queens.

[James C. Trager]

Certainly Paratrechina longicornis. This is just a small fragment of their supercolony, containing many more queens than these two. It is not uncommon for some ant species (a larage minority of the 1000s of different kinds of ants) to have more than one queen in a colony. 

[Elraen]

Ouv that's cool, thank you guys.

[Ants4fun]

Yes I was right!
I know since I found them a lot in Costa Rica.

Edited by Ants4fun, May 5 2015 - 10:46 AM.

[Forestflamboyant]

Howdy! So do you know how to identify queens. It doesn't always go by size and you have to examine the middle area of the thorax. It's usually longer which had wings attached and the muscles for flight. This is also how queens can live such a long time without eating for their first nanitics workers. Keeping this in mind will help you to identify future queens from other species. Hope this also helps!!  

[Jonathan21700]

I am not sure there are Paratrechina longicornis in Turkey. I think these might be Lepisiota dolabellae.

Here's a list of ant species in Turkey: http://www.google.bg....92291466,d.ZGU

Edited by Jonathan21700, May 5 2015 - 10:31 AM.

[Ants4fun]

They are an invasive species...

[Ants4fun]

Definitely Paratrechina longicornis.

Edited by Ants4fun, May 5 2015 - 1:12 PM.

[James C. Trager]

Notwithstanding Ants4fun's certainty, I think Jonathan21700's Lepisiota suggestion is certainly believable. I'd like to see more magnified pictures clearly showing the workers' thorax structure to be sure, but now that he mentions it, and on reexamination of the lower left individual of the first photo, I do think I can see the characteristic Lepisiota  bifurcate propodeum.

Not sure about the species, though. Could be L. frauenfeldi.

[Ants4fun]

Excuse my certainty. All the pics of Lepisiota I saw looked nothing like this, however I guess I should let every possibility without better pictures.