1. Location of collection: Arlington, WA.
2. Date of collection: Most June 15th, 2017 one June 17th, 2017
3. Habitat of collection: Gravel parking lot with 24 hour lights, under large rocks in dirt. Last one on pavement.
4. Length (from head to gaster): Queen A: 15mm, Queen B: 14mm, Queen C: 13mm, Queen D: 14mm, Queen E: 9mm, Queen F: 6mm
5. Color, hue, pattern and texture: Varies, see pictures.
6. Nest description: Unknown
Hey everyone! I am really hoping I can get some help with the ants I've found so far. This is my first year trying to capture a queen and the other day I found five, all in the same parking lot. I believe four are camponotus and probably all same species but I have no idea. The other one is Formica and found in the same parking lot under a big rock, just like the other four. Then this afternoon after a failed morning hunt while watching bugs outside I saw a little dot moving on the pavement. It's super tiny and I have no idea what it could be. It sure is a lot of fun trying to take pictures of with my cell phone. I have a bunch of images, all at joshooa.imgur.com. Here's some more information for them....
Queens A-E were all found between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning. It was sprinkling throughout the night and was very lightly sprinking when I found them. Probably upper 40s F but I'm not sure. They were all under rocks with no wings. They've been in test tubes mostly left alone in the dark since the first day and B, C and D all have eggs now. The last queen I got was around 1:30 in the afternoon, around 70F with the sun out at the time but high humidity. It rained a little before and later in the day. Queen A isn't liking the test tube life and pulls at the dry cotton but I noticed some dirt in there and I think I should make her a new more sanitary home. See if that helps. Queen E is semi agressive towards the dry cotton but leaves it alone just as much. Queen F has been calm the entire time I've had her in a tube. Was only fast when I picked her up in my hands of the pavement.
That's about all I can think of that I know about them, if there's any more information or pictures needed please let me know. I'm pretty sure that they aren't all fully claustral and I need to figure out what kind of ants I need to research pronto! Again, the pictures are at https://joshooa.imgur.com/with each Queen in her own folder, assuming I did it right. Thanks everyone for looking and trying to help!
