4 replies to this topic

[Nathant2131]

Just to be clear, I found a nest with many ants, and captured one major, one minor.

 

1. Location of collection: Dracut, Massachusetts (Northern Massachusetts)

 

2. Date of collection:  5/12/17
3. Habitat of collection: Beginning of a forest.
4. Length (from head to gaster): Minor: Roughly 5mm | Major: 7mm
5. Color, hue, pattern and texture: Pretty much all members of the colony were black. Some workers had a very slight tint of red in their mesosomas.
6. Distinguishing characteristics: Postpetiole absent. Erect hairs present on both worker castes' gasters.
7. Distinguishing behavior: The captive minor is extremely fast. The captive major is pretty chill. Both ants didn't even attempt to cross fluon, rather than trying and failing.
8. Nest description: Underneath bark of tree. There also were tunnels drilling right into the wood itself of the tree.

 

I highly assume this to be a Camponotus Myrmentoma species, but I just wanted to make sure becuase of the odd coloring. I often see the worker's mesosomas to vary in color from black to red, but have never seen a colony in which every worker's mesosoma was black.

 

I literally bumped into a tree and it was old enough for the bark to come off, so don't assume I was destroying colonies. I do feel really sorry for them though.      

 

Ant:

Minor:

 

 

 

 

Major:

 

 

 

 

Nest:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Batspiderfish]

Myrmentoma species like Camponotus nearcticus are quite variable in coloration. The ones I see in New England are pretty dark like this. All Myrmentoma spp. have a clypeal notch.

[Nathant2131]

Myrmentoma species like Camponotus nearcticus are quite variable in coloration.

I have noticed this. What I found interesting however was that the entire colony had black mesosomas. I would have thought that the individuals of the colony would be differently colored, and not all (more or less) the same. Fascinating! Is this some sort of genetic trait carried by the queen?

 

I'll try getting some face shots of the minor to see if there is a clypeal notch.

Edited by Nathant2131, May 12 2017 - 3:32 PM.

[Batspiderfish]

I think it's just our flavor of Camponotus nearcticus, like how our Formica pallidefulva are black and red, as opposed to the yellow varieties not far south of here.

[Nathant2131]

My camera isn't very powerful and is without a macro lense, so this is the best shot I got after I dipped the minor in alcohol.

 

There looks to be a notch, but that might just be the nature of the photo.

 

 

Still pretty sure this is Camponotus (Myrmentoma) sp. (therefore, either C. caryae or C. nearcticus)