23 replies to this topic

[Aaron567]

On the night of July 22, I was using my black light outdoors while visiting Fort Pierce, Florida, for vacation. The area has completely different ants than what I find at home. At the black light at around 9:00, there were several Camponotus males flying in, and eventually some queens.

 

I ended up collecting queens of Camponotus inaequalis, Camponotus floridanus, and Camponotus sexguttatus while using the black light. Here is a journal on the Camponotus inaequalis.

 

Camponotus inaequalis

 

Camponotus inaequalis is a native peninsular Floridian ant that is found from the Florida Keys to as far north as St. Augustine on the Atlantic coast. It is in the Camponotus maculatus species complex and is a close relative to neotropical species such as C. conspicuus and C. zonatus. Color in this species is variable and can range from a dull, loosely bicolored brown to bicolored red and black like floridanus, to almost entirely orangey in color.

 

This queen is 12mm. I think she's pretty cool looking. 

 

July 22, 2017

 

 

July 28, 2017

 

Wings shed!

 

 

July 29, 2017

 

First egg laid 

 

Edited by Aaron567, August 8 2021 - 3:28 PM.

[T.C.]

Nice! What are you using for a camera?

[Aaron567]

August 11, 2017

 

This queen has gotten her first larva. I'm sure this larva stage will go by very quickly like it always does.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:16 PM.

[Aaron567]

August 18, 2017

 

One week after this queen got her first larva, she already has her first pupa. I'm excited for nanitics! I have never seen workers of this species in person so seeing nanitics will be very cool.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:18 PM.

[Aaron567]

August 29, 2017

 

This queen's nanitic eclosed yesterday as a beautiful yellow worker. It is still the same color today, but it should eventually get quite a bit darker to match closely with the queen's coloration. The head shape with this species is interesting.. long head with their large eyes at the top.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:20 PM.

[VoidElecent]

Wow, beautiful! That C. sexguttatus nanitic looks like a Formica worker!

[Aaron567]

November 5, 2017

 

It's been hard getting this queen to lay eggs! She lays a few eggs, but I guess the eggs are so large and her gaster is so small that she cannot produce many at this stage of their life. The third generation of workers has not even arrived yet.

 

The colony has 5 workers right now, and just a few pieces of brood. I just wish the queen would lay a big batch of eggs. She looks very fat right now so maybe she'll lay soon. The colony is doing fine, other than that. They are active and are accepting food. I have also given them a little outworld.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:22 PM.

[Aaron567]

January 19, 2018

 

I'm glad to this colony has done well since the last update. Today they got their first major! The colony now has 13 workers in total, with a few large/medium larvae and over a dozen eggs/instar larvae.

 

These are pictures from yesterday, before the major eclosed.

 

 

And here is the major today. I am surprised by how large she is and how wide her head is, being only the first one.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:23 PM.

[anttics]

that's a midget major lol. beautiful species. I would like a Camponotus species some day.

[KBant]

yo, nice pictures!

[Serafine]

that's a midget major lol.

I don't think it even is a major, looks more like a big-headed media.

Those ants are really beautiful, the color scheme is so nice.

[Aaron567]

March 2, 2018 - A few setbacks

 

This colony has never had any setbacks until now. They have been consistently growing without any workers dying and without eating any brood. One of the nanitics died a few weeks ago, which was only their first death. 

 

The colony has 20 workers total now. I had a ytong AntsAustralia nest that I attempted to move them into, and it did not go so well. When I move my colonies, it is almost always immediately successful because I force them to move by dumping them out of their nest or test tube. I dumped the colony into their outworld so they would soon discover the new formicarium and move in. But, instead, they decided they hated the nest and wanted nothing to do with it, so they sat in their outworld for three days. Usually, ants would move into an area that has ideal temperature and humidity, but these did not. They would rather sit in the outworld and let themselves die of dehydration. So, I check on them to find one dead minor worker and their first and only major nearly dead. I quickly made a new test tube setup and put that in there, and they moved in quickly. I guess they are not ready for a formicarium quite yet, but they would've looked nice in that nest.

 

They are accepting a wide variety of foods still and are going to be just fine by the looks of it. It really sucks that their awesome major has died, though.

 

Here is a picture of when they were living in the outworld.

 

The dead major. May she rest in peace.

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:24 PM.

[Aaron567]

July 3, 2018

 

Over the 11 months that I've had this colony, it has grown slowly but surely. They are at about 40 workers now and only a couple pupae and a few small larvae. A new batch of eggs (around 10) was laid yesterday. They have one media worker and one small major. 

 

I just moved them into a new formicarium yesterday. This photo is a little cloudy from condensation. 

 

 

 

The media worker.

 

 

 

Pictures from when I was moving them.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:26 PM.

[Aaron567]

December 15, 2018

 

A few months ago when this colony had around 50 workers I forgot to hydrate their nest (like I always do with all of my colonies) and they had a big die-off... more than half of the colony died. They are just fine and have been recovering. The queen is still laying eggs as this species does not undergo diapause in most of their range.

 

Edited by Aaron567, May 16 2021 - 1:26 PM.

[Rstheant]

Update??

[EthanNgo678]

update?

[Acutus]

And what are you using to take the pictures??? these are amazing!!!

[FSTP]

Hopefully they're all still doing good. 

[NickAnter]

Update!

[Kaelwizard]

I love the C. sexguttatus