9 replies to this topic

[westhollywoodant]

I exctracted a large colony of camponotus vicinus after there habitat was destroyed from a fallen tree. 

I thought I grabbed the queen but then think I lost her after all which is unfortunate. But I believe I noticed some fresh eggs so maybe I do have the queen. 

Need help confirming as I am not super familiar with this species. It looks like a major kinda but the head size and gaster size is giving me second thoughts. 

Queen?

Queen? 

Major 

Fresh eggs.

Big Brood pile

Full nest 

Edited by westhollywoodant, July 22 2022 - 8:14 AM.

[That_one_ant_guy]

Sorry to say but none of those ants are queens, those eggs probably came with the rest of the brood pile but you just didn't notice them, because some of them are about to be larvae

[That_one_ant_guy]

Queens would have a bigger thorax and gaster than the workers, also wing scars

[FinWins]

Sadly I have to agree

[westhollywoodant]

Yeah that’s what I was thinking but the fresh egg pile threw me off. I’ve had the ants a week. But I originally was thinking that. Bummer! But lots of big colonies of these up in mountains where I collected so will see about catching a new Queen in spring and starting from day 1.

[That_one_ant_guy]

You could try giving your camponotus colonies the brood

[westhollywoodant]

I thought about that but it’s a much larger species so not sure how they will take to them.

[westhollywoodant]

I can try with a few smaller larvae and eggs.

[westhollywoodant]

Gonna try and buy a Queen and brood boost her.

[westhollywoodant]

Was able to successfully brood boost my C. Clarithorax colony with a batch of younger larvae from this one. The workers of this species are like the size of the queen of my Clarithorax so that would be cool and should really help power start this colony.
And may have found a Queen Vicinus for sale so I will try and acquire and give her a huge brood boost.
Making the most of it 😎🐜🐜