(A note, all bolded text is sarcastic, espically those regarding illegal smuggling of ants. If you live in the U.S, it is illegal to bring ants across state borders.) Some images did not load, I will have to add them later.
I want you to make a guess. If you search "fire ants" into Google or Bing, what images do you think you will see? Make your guess. It sure won't be a Solenopsis sp. We all wish it was Myrmica to keep the shred of brain cells we still have, but no. It is.. Oecophylla-
I don't understand where they get these images. The most embarrassing part is that the misidentifications are almost always from pest companies! That's like saying my doctor said I had a cold, and I died two weeks later from having a coronavirus-. (The ants shouldn't kill you unless you are allergic, but the point still stands,)
Ah yes, Oecophylla. The rare Asian Arboreal Army Ant.
Formica? No, this MUST be a LEAFCUTTER ANT. Obviously if an ant goes within a two kilometer radius of a leaf it MUST be a leafcutter ant, right? (This actually could be Camponotus, they look very similar where I live.)
According to Bing, Weavers are a common American species! I'm so excited to catch some. Since Weaver ants are from America, I'm going to go import some now. Since they live in the US it's- totally not illegal. I do want to ask if the parasitic ones will be better at raising termite brood or yellowjacket brood?
Google is a very trustworthy website, so this MUST be the black imported fire ant, Solenopsis richteri. I suppose I've gone colorblind.
To all of the people who think P. imparis
drones like this are queens, and
were freaking out thinking there
was going to be a hundred-queen
super colony in their kitchen. Do they even
train these pest control people to indentify
the insects? Even my friend who has only
been hearing about ants for two months can
already reliably tell the difference between
semi-claustral queens and workers. SEMI
CLAUSTRALS!!
I thought I searched for ants, not wasps. Velvet ants do look
a fair amount like a queen ant, but they should not be this
fuzzy.
We've all seen this image of the "leafcutter" ant female
and the leafcutter ant "drone."
".Leafcutter ants, workers, soldier, queen, and male."
I wish people would stop calling majors soldiers. Any
ant can guard the entrance of the nest, or fight other
ants, therefor being a "soldier," but not all ants are
born will a large head allowing them to rip into food
items, like a major.
I'm assuming the winged ant is supposed to be a
male, but that is most certainly a queen.
We shall now venture to a shop called Ants Alive,
shipping live harvester ants. When you see
harvester ants in America, it means two things.
One, a normal, caring seller, or two, Uncle
Milton ant farms Death Traps.
Gel. Gel. THIS IS GOING TO GROW MOLD!!!! And it is even worse because it is white, so when mold grows on it it will take even longer for you to notice. I don't
understand why they don't ship eggs, larvae, and pupae with this. That would at least give the workers a purpose. Give them a sand version of this farm with an outworld
attached and some brood, and then I will reconsider this being a death trap. AntsAlive- they will come alive, but they won't stay that way for long.
Staying on the topic of harvester ants, but leaving AntsAlive, we get this image.
These are harvester ants. Since they
are harvesters, I can dig up the
whole colony and send them to my
friend in Iowa, since they are harvesters.
With most of these misidentifications, I don't care too much. It really bothers me that the pest control services are the ones usually making these mistakes. The amount of people who will find some orange/reddish Dorymyrmex around their house, and because of these websites spend hundreds of dollars on exterminators to eliminate a threat that was never there. These people are supposed to be experts, but they can barely figure out the difference between C. floridanus and S. invicta. I could literally show both of those ants to some second graders, and they would be able to figure out that they are indeed two different species. I'm sure some random AC fan is going to be browsing around the internet, figuring out that "weaver ants are native to Florida" and (try, it will be pretty hard to find someone willing to smuggle in weavers) to illegaly ship weaver ants. This is the reason I'm happy Formiculture exists. Here you can find mostly reliable data, that is accessible to everyone. So we need to put out as much data as we can ants, upload as much images as you can. Formiculture is usually one of the top results regarding ant species, so if we do this enough, we could flood out the misinformation. We need to make entire galleries for species, and guides to what ants live where, and detailed information about them. We need to keep people from buying gel farms (everywhere where they can be sold, leave some horrible reviews.). It may not be best to get them to catch their own queens, since they'll probably just get bored of them after a bit and release them. If you are thinking about going into antkeeping, but are not sure you or your children can care for them, try a bit of a "test-run." Catch workers of some species you plan to care for. Make sure to collect eggs, larvae, and pupae with them. Place them into a real formicarium or test tube - this is what antkeepers have been using for years to rear colonies. If you can feed and take care of them until the ants reach the natural end of their life, and still have an interest, you can catch your own queens. If you have created some of this misinformation, pleas try to get your ants identified! You are on a website with an entire subforum filled with people who want to tell you what species your ant is, please just ask! Look up pictures, which ever ants are shown the most are probably the correct identification. If your ant does not match, try again. Search up lists of ants that live in your area, and figure out what matches your ant!
Edited by The_Gaming-gate, March 27 2024 - 3:51 PM.
