15 replies to this topic

[AntsMAN]

Came home today from work to find these two wondering around my yard.

Haven't seen any flights. It's been 75F here for a few days, very dry, little wind. Hope to see some Lasius and Formica soon.

 

 

[LC3]

I like the second queens colour pattern.

[Ants4fun]

C. vicinus? Possibly novaeboracensis as well...

[AntsNY]

I kept my novaeboracensis  queen in the dark for 40 days and when I moved her into a lighted enviroment she ate all her eggs and larva.

 

She must have got lots of protein because she laid eggs again and now has a bunch of new larva...

 

Strange behavior indeed.

 

In the future its pure dark or light, never moving them from one to the other again.

[AntsMAN]

Caught another one today same time 5:00PM same weather conditions.

[AntsMAN]

Update on the three new queens.

 

Only three days and all three queens have eggs, and I  got to see the full egg laying process with one.

I would have taken pictures but I was scared I might disturb them.

[Ants4fun]

Congrats!

[AntsMAN]

Just went to walk down stairs in my house and found another one on its way up to meet me, so I marked her special.

That's four and counting still no Lasius of Formica though.

[Crystals]

Camponotus novaeboracensis.  I am quite surprised that they are flying now, usualy they are done flying mid-June at the latest.

 

Quite easy to care for.  My colony is growing very rapidly.

They eat practically anything, from cricket chunks to mealworms and sugar water or hummingbird nectar is welcome.  They prefer a temp around 23-25C.  Mine have no problem with ambient room light (or even my strong flashlight).  Just no direct sunlight.

 

I have a habit of feeding my queens hummignbird nectar while founding, but it isn't required as this species is fully claustral.

[AntsMAN]

Camponotus novaeboracensis.  I am quite surprised that they are flying now, usualy they are done flying mid-June at the latest.

 

Quite easy to care for.  My colony is growing very rapidly.

They eat practically anything, from cricket chunks to mealworms and sugar water or hummingbird nectar is welcome.  They prefer a temp around 23-25C.  Mine have no problem with ambient room light (or even my strong flashlight).  Just no direct sunlight.

 

I have a habit of feeding my queens hummignbird nectar while founding, but it isn't required as this species is fully claustral.

 

 

Last year August 20-28, I caught the following:

I was surprised that I caught them all in the one week, I never seen any flights only found queens wondering.

10 or so camponotus noveboracensis (one survived) she is my best colony.

2 Formica fusca (one survived) Still having trouble, very slow growing colony.

4 Lasius neoniger (two survived) and doing great almost ready for new Talus.

3 camponotus pennsylvanicus (none survived) my own stupidity.

[AntsMAN]

Caught another one today.

[LC3]

Cool. Do all of them have the same colour pattern on their messossoma?

[AntsMAN]

Todays catch was a Camponotus pennsylvanicus

 

Camponotus noveboracensis

 

Three Camponotus noveboracensis middle one has a beautiful color.

[AntsMAN]

I found the Camponotus pennsylvanicus dead today. I noticed when taking pictures of her she was missing one antenna, and had

a wound on her abdomen.

 

 

[LC3]

Seems like they don't have the same pattern.

Sorry that your Camponotus died. 

[Huch]

Darn I am jealous. I was only able to catch one C. Novae and C. pennsylvanicus this year. One year I found about a dozen of each, but this year has been tough.