9-7-2014

I found one of these Camponotus fragilis alates 7-24-2014 next to O'Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, California. I then found two more alates on 8-3-2014, and one dealate on 8-4-2014 near Joshua Tree National Park. The alate in Trabuco Canyon was found on a hot night around 10:00 pm on a black light trap. The other two alates were also found on a black light trap around 11:00 pm after a storm came through earlier in the day. The one dealate, found a day after the storm, was also found around 11:00 pm stuck in a small hole in the ground next to an Ironwood tree.

For the first week none of these laid any eggs at all. Then, one of the alates from Joshua Tree National Park finally laid some eggs.




After about another week went by, the other two from Joshua Tree laid eggs. At this point I could see the first alate that laid eggs was starting to get larvae, so that one's most likely fertile.






The alate from Trabuco Canyon went for five weeks without doing anything, and then suddenly laid eggs a few days ago. I'll be really surprised if she turns out to be fertile.

Now today, the first queen to lay eggs has her first cocoons, and should have workers soon.

Why does it say 2014 in the thread title then it says 2013 in the post?

 

Nice looking queen, hope she keeps her wings, they look cooler with wings on.

Why does it say 2014 in the thread title then it says 2013 in the post?

Not anymore. 

And yeah, she does look a bit more cool with wings on, but they can be a nuisance.

Beautiful queen, how long exactly did it take for her to get pupae?

Not anymore. 

No, he's right. Fixed now.

 

And yeah, she does look a bit more cool with wings on, but they can be a nuisance.

Beautiful queen, how long exactly did it take for her to get pupae?

A little less than a month.

I love their light coloration.

Update 9-18-2014

Well it turns out the alate from Trabuco Canyon that didn't lay a single egg for the first month I had it, is actually fertile after all, and has quite a few medium-sized larvae now. That makes all four of these fertile, even though only one is without wings.

The first to lay eggs, just got her first worker this morning. This is definitely one of the coolest looking Camponotus spp. I have.

My first attempt at taking video through my microscope.

 

Cool looking ants 

I love how they flew this late. I want one of these paler ones, but I think I would prefer Camponotus absquatulator.

Update 10-5-2014

All four colonies have workers now. The first to get workers now has eight, and the two latest both have just one. All four have a nice amount of brood too. I moved the largest colony into a foraging container today.

Just after a feeding of ByFormica's Formula Blue. Who says we don't have any green ants in North America?




Add a little humming bird nectar and get Christmas ants.




And when you mix the two...

Christmas Ants!!!

Update 10-17-2014
 
I moved two more of these colonies into foraging containers yesterday. Both for some reason don't see to want to stay inside their test tubes. Instead, they're all out wandering around, dropping their brood all over the place--queen included.

Update 11-22-2014
 
Yesterday, I found one of these queens dead. She left five workers and a decent pile of brood behind. I gave all the brood to the largest colony, and they quickly snatched it all up and brought it in their tube. I replaced that doomed colony with the colony that was still living in a test tube only. Other than that, these colonies seem to be doing pretty good.

Update 12-3-2014
 
I had another one of these queens die yesterday. She left behind a good amount of brood and about 10 workers. Like the last one, I gave all her brood to my best colony.

Update 2-27-2015
 
The largest colony is still doing well, but the smaller one with about eight workers just lost their queen.

 

Here is the strange behavior I observed just hours before she died. I got video of her doing this same thing a long time ago, and everybody speculated that she might have been trying to remove her wings.

 

Parasite? 

This species has even lighter colour compares to mine, very beautiful ants.

Update 6-14-2015
 

This colony is still doing well and growing. The queen continues to lay more eggs all the time. They are now up to about 80 workers. This is the biggest Camponotus colony I have ever had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colony has I think three smaller majors now, and this is one of them.

 

 

That is so cool that the queen kept her wings that long!

I love this species-group. I've got tons of the similar C. festinatus all over the place around here. They fly pretty late. Is your colony primarily active during the day? I only ask because I've never seen workers of C. festinatus active in the day...