Hi guys!
Yesterday I was taking my hike on my usual place where I've caught my couple last ID requests, and I've found these 2 queens on the dirt road between the little pebbles. This place keeps on giving!
1. Location of collection
Portugal, Europe
2. Date of collection
June 24th 2023
3. Habitat of collection
Country side, in an area cultivated with an intensive Eucalyptus monoculture (as is most of my region) and some pine trees.
The dirt road is very dry with lots of little pebbles. Very near there is a place that can accumulate rain falls and make a pond and has juncus plants, but by now, as it is summer, it should be already dry or with some moisture as in the last week there have been a couple days of rain just perfect for their mating. I caught them a couple days after the rain.
The soil, very dry, is generally made out little rocks and pebbles.
The queens were walking on the dirt road (which is surrounded by a sort of juncus plants) at night fall.
I've found them on the surroundings of, what I believe, their own colony, and not far at all from workers.
A few meters away there are several colony holes on the ground. I don't know if there are several colonies or just a huge one with several holes.
4. Length
Huge, between 15 and 17mm.
5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture
The head, the thorax and the last 2/3 of the gaster are black or very dark brown.
The legs are very dark brown or black, but the segments that are near the body (especially in the hind legs) are reddish brown.
The gaster is long and very "fat". It has 3 black shinier stripes. The 1st third of the gaster has a reddish brown color.
They have hairs on their gasters.
Please see the attached photos.
6. Distinguishing characteristics
Only one single petiole.
The gaster has rings, hairs, and a reddish brown hue spot on the beginning of the gaster. (Please refer to the photos.)
Apart from the queens' photos, I also attach photos of workers I've found nearby on that place's ground. They are the first two photos. These are around a week old when I was walking around and found them really cute with the red mark on their gasters and took some photos for fun. I intended to request you guys a worker ID but I would never dream a few days later and on the same spot coming across 2 queens!
They seem to be some sort of Camponotus (and they came from the same place where I found a (different) Camponotus) that ended up being a worker.
But these ants live in holes on the ground, not on trees. I've checked on https://ant-photo.eu and I couldn't find anything quite like them.
So what can they be?
As usual, many thanks guys!
