Jump to content

  • Chat
  •  
  •  

Welcome to Formiculture.com!

This is a website for anyone interested in Myrmecology and all aspects of finding, keeping, and studying ants. The site and forum are free to use. Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation points to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!

Photo

Solenopsis ID CatsnAnts - Jasper Indiana (8-20-2020)


Best Answer Aaron567 , August 30 2020 - 6:38 PM

A darker queen of molesta. Anything else wouldn't be flying in the evening and would look strikingly different when compared to other molesta queens up close. It's pretty normal for certain odd queens to be completely rejected from a group, in many species. Assuming these queens are molesta or at least molesta-sized, a queen of S. picta would be only about 1/2 or 2/3 the size of them.

Go to the full post


  • Please log in to reply
1 reply to this topic

#1 Offline CatsnAnts - Posted August 30 2020 - 4:43 PM

CatsnAnts

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1,008 posts
  • LocationJasper, Indiana

I found a bunch of S. molesta queens during a nuptial flight one evening in early July. However, I recently noticed that there was one queen in particular that was singled out from the group and occasionally was picked on by workers and did not appear to be S. molesta. I seperated this queen as well as two other queens that looked a little similar to this oddball queen (although these two queens could easily be S. molesta since they are more similar S. molesta than the first queen mentioned, and these queens were not singled out like the first queen either). The single queen that I'm almost positive is different is on the cotton in the pictures, as she is much darker, and the two other queens are shown in the picture as sitting on the brood pile that originally belonged to my 15 queen S. molesta colony, so the workers will be a majority of S. molesta. Could that single queen be S. picta?

 

IMG 7368
IMG 7378
IMG 7379

 


Spoiler

#2 Offline Aaron567 - Posted August 30 2020 - 6:38 PM   Best Answer

Aaron567

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1,005 posts
  • LocationPensacola, FL

A darker queen of molesta. Anything else wouldn't be flying in the evening and would look strikingly different when compared to other molesta queens up close. It's pretty normal for certain odd queens to be completely rejected from a group, in many species. Assuming these queens are molesta or at least molesta-sized, a queen of S. picta would be only about 1/2 or 2/3 the size of them.


  • Martialis, AnthonyP163, FeedTheAnts and 2 others like this




1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users