10 replies to this topic

[BMM]

1. Caught a little south of St. Louis in a public park.

2. 4/13/17
3. She was hiding under a small chunk of wood that was sitting in the grass. The area is lightly forested, but there are some thicker woods a few hundred feet away.
4. She's about 17mm long.
5. She's mostly black with a caramel color on the underside of her mesosoma and at the base of her legs. Her gaster is slightly hairy with a little shine to it.

 

I'm thinking she's a Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen, but I'd still appreciate some second opinions.

 

Edited by BMM, April 13 2017 - 2:10 PM.

[LC3]

Camponotus modoc. I don't think they should be flying this early though. 

Edited by LC3, April 13 2017 - 2:24 PM.

[BMM]

Is C. modoc found this far east? 

[BMM]

Caught another queen. This time from my backyard under a log. She's the same size as the one in my first post. The only difference is she's got a red coloration at the front of her gaster.

 

 

[Cindy]

Agree that this is Camponotus modoc 

[Cindy]

The second one is Camponotus chromaiodes 

[BMM]

I'm a little skeptical of the first one being C. modoc. From what I can tell, I'm at least a few hundred miles away from their native range. The coloration doesn't seem quite right either, as the legs are a light brown color and only where they meet the body. The rest is black.

 

The second one definitely seems like C. chromaiodes though.

[Cindy]

C. pennsylvanicus is more probable then, given the description you just gave

[BMM]

So I took a trip back to the park and managed to pick up three more queens, all wingless and solid black. I'm fairly certain these are C. pennsylvanicus. I also moved a bit firewood around in my backyard and found another wingless C. pennsylvanicus queen.

 

I did a bit more research on what carpenter ants are native to Missouri and the first two queens I posted rather have to be C. pennsylvanicus or C. chromaiodes. The other species we have all look much different. Given that the first two clearly have a different coloration from all the solid black queens I found, I'm inclined to say they're both C. chromaiodes.

 

Edited by BMM, April 14 2017 - 10:01 AM.

[LC3]

In the first pic the legs definitely looked red to me, and the size matches well. Sorry about that.

If I remember correctly the type locality of C.modoc is regarded as California, and C.modoc found in the east have characteristics of C.pennsylvanicus, sort of like a "transition". 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a colour morph of C.chromaiodes. (Seems the most probable as C.pennsylvanicus does not have yellowish legs).

Edited by LC3, April 14 2017 - 12:01 PM.

[Spamdy]

The first one Camponotus pennsylvanicus in my history, looks exactly like mine. Also it was near a forested area and my Camponotus pennsylvanicus has yellowish legs.