12 replies to this topic

[Typo--29]

I recently caught 2 types of queens and I'm fairly certain both are campontus and one type is an all black vicinus but the other I have no idea

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[dspdrew]

It's impossible to know without having a location or other information.

[Typo--29]

Magalia in northern California up in the woods(evergreen) around 2,500 feet up on the eastern side of the Sacramento vally all collected early to mid May

Edited by Typo--29, May 18 2016 - 1:57 PM.

[Typo--29]

Also I'm not sure how to measure them. Would holding a ruler up to the test tube be accurate enough?

[dspdrew]

Also I'm not sure how to measure them. Would holding a ruler up to the test tube be accurate enough?

 

Anything's better than nothing. How big is the test tube?

[dspdrew]

I would suspect the black one is something other than a black C. vicinus. It's hard to ID Camponotus in the West without any high resolution pictures, particularly of the face.

[Typo--29]

The all black ones at about 1.5-1.6 centimeters and ones with the yellowish are about 1.4

[Typo--29]

I tried for a while but my camera just isn't good enough to get any better pics but the all black queens seem to be perfectly fine living in pairs I have two pairs(queens) living together and I have noticed eggs in both of their test tubes and two solitary queens that have accepted wild workers (all sets living together successfully for almost a week)

Edited by Typo--29, May 20 2016 - 9:47 AM.

[Typo--29]

I finally got better pics of the 2 all black ones

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Edited by Typo--29, May 22 2016 - 1:48 PM.

[dspdrew]

Looks like a black C. vicinus to me.

[Typo--29]

Awesome thank you I've been wanting to start a journal on here for them but I really wanted to have at least a good idea what the species was I also got better photos of the one with the redish

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Edited by Typo--29, May 22 2016 - 2:47 PM.

[dspdrew]

I think the orange and black one might be C. semitestaceus. The pictures just aren't high enough resolution to say for sure. A lot of the subgenus Tanaemyrmex is really hard to tell apart, even when looking at them directly on a microscope.

[Typo--29]

Thank you for the help I really had no leads on that one I spent a good 2 hours going through different sites from Google and I just couldn't figure it out