I have a new colony of tiny ants which may need special care as their characteristics may be non-standard.
I caught the queen indoors – in an air-conditioned room. She could have flown in through a window, of course, but it does seem an unlikely place. Only 5 mm long, and I have normally ignored small queens, but having not caught queens for a long time, I tried my luck. The first time I noticed births, there were 6 nanitics, about 1.5 mm long.
Why is this species unusual? Unlike my other colonies, the queen and brood do not crave humidity. They started life in a tooth-pick container, and the queen laid her eggs in the green cap rather than near the cotton wool. The picture shows the only time I have seen the queen leave the cap, and it was only to sample the honey, not fill herself with it. She stays there with her brood, yes, away from the water supply. How odd. Sometimes one or two workers go for a drink of water, so it’s still necessary.
They have not eaten much. The workers do not seem interested in the honey, and I’ve given them only small cockroach legs for their protein so far. I hope they’ll be not too difficult to feed.
Another interesting observation is that it seems the larvae do not turn into pupae. Just before becoming adults, they look like tiny pale immobile ants, but they’re too small for me to be sure.
I think they’re a crematogaster species with pointy rear ends, but that could be part of my imagination. One might want to wait for them to grow a little to be more confident.
Perhaps it doesn’t matter what their exact name is. I’d be more interested in getting tips on how to keep them.
