5 replies to this topic

[euty33]

Hello i caught another (hopefully) queen ant! I was looking for formica fusca nests under rocks today for my formica rufa queen and stumbled across a little tiny nest with maybe 10 workers and 2 queens!! i left one of the queens and the nest intact, i can find it again if necesary (and its still there)

 

she was found in a wineyard field, in some soft earth about 2cm into the ground. there were 2 queens together!  She was caught today, she's about 10-15mm long abit smaller than the rufa queen i found yesterday. she's all black although i think i can see a little tinge of red hue under her ? not too sure, it seems her gaster also has whitish grayish stripes.

 

She also seems to love playing dead, she's done it twice already. In her test tube she seems to have found a spot and refuses to leave it, tried to move her abit once but she immediatly went back to her position.

 

Think that's all i got for this one! Any info on her would be awesome!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

https://imgur.com/a/G35TByL

(there's 5 photos, still uploading, abit slow, and i didn't manage to catch any amazing photos, she's abit smaller i'll try to get better ones after work if these won't suffice.)

[Mettcollsuss]

Definitely a queen. Most likely Formica sp. She's probably not a parasite, though hard to tell completely from the photos. Can you try to get some more pictures?

 

EDIT: Did you take any of the workers? If she already had workers when you found her, then she will need workers or else she will die.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, May 18 2018 - 4:52 AM.

[euty33]

uhm no i didn't originally take any workers :S i quickly went back where i found her (i noted exact spot) and tried to find stragglers, managed to find 2 or 3 but only capture 1 worker is there any chance it might work ? worker and queen seems to get along, worker seems to just hang out around her and is grooming he's antennae ... queen doesnt give af. gonna try and grab better pics.

[euty33]

https://imgur.com/a/ct3dW0t

new photo i don't think my phone can do better photos at this close distance :S

[Mettcollsuss]

She should live. If you want to be extra sure, you could boost her with pupae from a wild colony.

[euty33]

so about the ID ... any chance she's an formica fusca or something like that ? i have a formica rufa queen that i also need to find pupae for, would be fortunate if both could be solved with digging up a single nest.