Hello,
This past Saturday, the 30th of March, I found a colony of Temnothorax (presumably Curvispinosus) in a hollow twig while hiking in a mixed forest of oak and pine at the edge of a clearing, out side of Kingston, NY, USA early afternoon. This evening they finally moved out into a a test tube set up. I was able to get some video footage of the move and posted a short clip on YouTube. The video confirms something that I thought I had been seeing as I’ve been observing them these past few days: some of the ants have much darker heads! I am very new to anting, but I do my research, and I’m quite certain that this is Temnothorax Pilagens the social parasite. I was unable to get any images of the queen, but I did confirm that there was at least one in the colony. The possible Pilagens seemed to make up about 20% of the colony, whose total population i’d guess to be about 100 + brood. Unfortunately i cannot really get any more decent comparative images or any of the queen until I finish a proper formacarium for them as they chose the new testube I added last night that I had tried lining with cork. The cork lining worked out great and they moved right in, but now I cannot see them. Anyway, if any of you think you may be able to help with this ID for me I created a YouTube channel just for the occasion, and I would greatly appreciated if you’d take a minute to watch the video. The video follows one worker I believe to be Pilagens for about a minute. There are several moments where she passes right by presumably Curvispinosus and you can clearly see the difference in the head. Couldn’t get the link to work, but the channel is George Wilson and the title is April 4, 2018. If you type that into YouTube it will be the first video you see. Will have more images soon. And thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Jimi Henderson aka George Wilson
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