Update 4-28-2016
I just took this colony out of hibernation yesterday. There's only four workers left now, so hopefully she lays some eggs soon.
They didn't seem interested in crickets when they first warmed up, but they did drink quite a bit of Sunburst Ant Nectar. I gave them a little piece of a cricket today and they did feed on it.
I'm keeping these, along with all the other Camponotus found up in the mountains in another area of my apartment where it's usually about 80 degrees instead of the room where it's always over 90. I think this will probably be better for them.
80 degrees? We have our house at 68, and our furnace still kicks in from time to time.......The joys of living in the great white north I guess!
Mads
I forgot how HUGE their eggs are too.
At first I assumed it was just brown because it was callow, because black ants are always brown when they are callow, but two weeks have gone by and it's still brown. Then after taking pictures of it today, I noticed what sure looks to me like a clypeal carina. Im not completely sure because some Camponotus that supposedly don't have one, look to me like they do. If it is one, then this would not only mean that these can't be C. quercicola, but that they can't even be of the Camponotus subgenus at all. I guess it would be some sort of Tanaemyrmex, but I don't even know of any solid, medium brown Camponotus this size of any subgenus around here. I also don't know of any Tanaemyrmex around here that lay long skinny eggs like C. laevigatus either. I'm trying to remember if I could have possibly boosted them either on purpose or on accident while moving colonies around, but I highly doubt that would have happened; Besides, I don't even have any other species that produces workers that look like this. One other thing, why would the queen and minors be pretty much black, but the majors be medium brown? I've seen differences in colors between minors and majors, but not like that.
