1. Location of collection: Stratford Ontario Canada
2. Date of collection: April 9th. was only 15 deg c that day and some of the logs I rolled over still had ice under them (not alot of sun hit the ground in this location)
3. Habitat of collection: In a small wooded area of old growth maple trees. Within 100feet of a river found in a very rotten wet dead tree branch.(could pull apart the wood with bare hands)
4. Length:
Queens are 6mm +/- 1mm (there are 3 all found within the same chamber)
Workers seem 3-5mm long some almost as large as the queens
5. Coloration, hue, pattern and texture:
Queens i counted 12-14 antennal Segments heads are a dark brown almost black with alot of hair all over them. Thorax is redish/brownnear the head and goes darker toward the waist. Two small spines followed by 2 petiole. Gaster is dark-red/brown and very shiny with hair all over(standing stright up)
Worker: Dull brown/black head redish/brown legs. Thorax is a solid light brownwith two spines followed by 2 petiole. Gaster is dark-red/brown and very shiny with hair all over(standing stright up)
Queen and workers are very similar in coloration and appearance and even size in a few cases thorax shape being the exclusion
6. Distinguishing characteristics: err um see above^ oh and no stinger
7. Anything else distinctive: Seemed quite aggressive especially considering the temperature. Only had 1 larva and no eggs or pupa when collected. The seem unatached to the testube I've placed them in and are exploring the feeding area I've allotted them. They are eating cricket legs and sweets. After 5 min with a light and microscope on the test tube they all moved out of the founding tube. Egg laying has been aggressive sense capture. 15-20 eggs now and if you look at the picture carefully you can see I caught a queen laying one.
8. Nest description: See above
9. Nuptial flight time and date: I assume last year
10 . Post the clearest pictures possible:
Thanks for your help let me know if you need more info. I tried to be as thorough as possible. also sorry about the first set of pictures my microscope was freezing up so I tried to just take pics with my phone:(
Cichlid
P.S. New here just found you guys and you seem active and from North America so yay. I'm newish to ant keeping, 9 months in I guess. I have a Tetramorium immigrans colony, the above ants and 2 other species(founding) ill hopefully get identified at a later time. and this year i really want to found a camponotus colony this year!