Around April of 2021, I was sitting around waiting for flights of Camponotus pennsylvanicus when I noticed a Camponotus nearcticus queen scurrying up the trunk of a tree. That night, I collected 37 more until around 1 am. I, being miserably unprepared, had read on Discord that nearcticus was polygynous in certain populations. I hoped that mine were poly, so I threw them all into the 15 or so tubes that I had available. After they had gotten workers (in late June - early July, which is during Temnothorax, Colobopsis, and Pheidole flights), I only had two 2 queen colonies. The larger one, which had a much bigger nanitic batch, was doing amazing and was one of the colonies that I prioritized. They got a half major 2nd gen, full major and male (which was immediately ripped apart) 3rd gen, and then went into diapause. They were getting neglected for the month I was waiting for the last pupae to eclose, which killed off their numbers a little bit. They were fine throughout diapause, with around 70 small larvae. Moved them into a miniformisquarium with an outworld from Cheeto, and dumped them in. They took a little bit of convincing, but in the end, moved in. Added in a byFormica liquid feeder micro and they are full (and I won't even have to worry about sugars that often anymore!). Here they are now.
I am quite certain on my ID of C. nearcticus, as not only is it far more common (which should not be a main IDing factor, but whatever), it lacks the heavy beard that C. caryae queens and majors have.
Edited by OiledOlives, April 18 2022 - 6:32 AM.
