47 replies to this topic

[William. T]

Idk why, that body reminds me of a camponotus.

Same here, but a closer look at the thorax reveals there are two bumps, which mean it is Formica. I read that on Alex Wild's blog, there is an entire article on the difference of Formica and Camponotus.

[dspdrew]

Formica pallidefulva don't have much hair on their thorax, as opposed to all the other Formica of this color in that region.

[Ants4fun]

But with a lot of pics I look at them, their body is all one color, while the one's in the video had a distinct darker colored gaster. Also most of them where quite red... 

Edited by Ants4fun, April 10 2015 - 4:43 AM.

[Pulliamj]

I'm not sure either. I see lots of different color variations with different pictures on the Internet. But I'm fairly certain it is dolosa or pallidefulva. pallidefulva can be slaved by other ants is the only thing I saw that was unique about them vs dolosa.

[Pulliamj]

Everything I read says they are very fast. They seem to be smart too. I had a glass lid on top of the container perfectly flush. One ant wedged himself between the glass and container then the others started escaping.

[James C. Trager]

These are indeed Formica, Crystals, either F. pallidefulva or possibly F. biophilica. They can be told apart by hair patterns that are not visible in these photos. Both species are very heat tolerant, the former most of all, occurring well into southern peninsular Florida in places where even a light frost is a rare occurrence.

[Ants4fun]

I was thinking about Formica biophilica because if there color.

Edited by Ants4fun, April 10 2015 - 5:09 AM.

[Pulliamj]

This is after one night!!! How big do these Formica colonies get?