5 replies to this topic

[1tsm3jack]

Collected along Swan Lake south trail, in Charlottesville, VA on 5/20/2024 (post made on 5/21/2024), Oak forest/Pine forest area, collected out of a small piece of wood, queen is about 6mm worker is about 3.5mm, dull brownish with slight texture all over the ant, was collected out of a rotting log, I also witnessed the nuptial flight of the same species the same day (5/20/2024) around 9:40 EST they were swarming on my balcony around a light I believe it may be Tetramorium Immigrans but I wanted to gets some more opinions. Sorry for bad picture quality I can get a better picture if needed for ID.

Edited by 1tsm3jack, May 21 2024 - 11:17 AM.

[Mettcollsuss]

Aphaenogaster. If collecting a wild colony, you'll need to collect as many of the workers as you can, a single worker likely won't be enough to get them to recover and adapt to captivity.

[1tsm3jack]

She only had one worker, I thought it might be Tetramorium I didn't think it really looked like Aphaenogaster. I also found another colony of the same species that had 2 queens and about 12 workers and an egg pile.

Edited by 1tsm3jack, May 21 2024 - 6:46 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Do not collect wild colonies! It is unnecessary and harmful to local ecosystems. Learn how to catch new queens after nuptial flights, instead of digging up established ants.

[Virginian_ants]

Do not collect wild colonies! It is unnecessary and harmful to local ecosystems. Learn how to catch new queens after nuptial flights, instead of digging up established ants.

I second this I used to try to collect established colonies but it never worked out they mostly ended up dyeing and I've stopped since.

[1tsm3jack]

Yes, I plan on not collecting wild colonies anymore. This particular Aphaenogaster colony handled it well though, I gave them a test tube full of dirt to nest in attached to a test tube portal and the queen has already started to lay more eggs.

Edited by 1tsm3jack, May 23 2024 - 5:46 PM.