3 replies to this topic

[Sharpman972]

I know these are camponotus castaneus, here in eastern Maryland, but what are they doing? They were on my building and could be found on all sides of the building but weren't moving. I think I counted over 30 but I started seeing them yesterday so there were plenty more I didn't see. They didn't really move from where they were sitting for the entire day. Also, I looked in the entire area, they were only on my building and I couldn't find a single one anywhere else. I went ahead and caught 3 of them but I feel like they are all still virgins. What do you guys think?

 

some crappy pics

 

https://imgur.com/a/eawZY2N

[Dotdispenser]

I have been seeing male drones of the Camponotus Castaneus species for three days now. They are all over the Ingles Supermarket and Ingles Gas Station in my town.

I’ve only seen one queen, though! And I caught her over a week ago—*nowhere* near the gas station.

My hypotheses are that the drones have either already mated with the queens and possibly conglomerate together after mating. Or that they fly out way before the queens do for whatever reason—but this conflicts with the fact that I found one fertile queen already.

Odd. Would love to understand this behavior...

Edited by Dotdispenser, June 2 2018 - 3:35 PM.

[Canadian anter]

I have found that Lasius males also do this. I always thought they were leks like how birds do. 

[Sharpman972]

Well to update what the ants are doing, most of them went away. I still found a couple around and found a couple queens dead on the ground. I didn't see any males but its been windy so they could have blown away. I decided to catch another one just in case.