9 replies to this topic

[Tspivey16]

There was a large flight last evening in Columbus, OH. I found this queen on an evening walk in the neighborhood with the family. She was just resting on the sidewalk. It remains to be seen if she has mated or not. We saw several others buzzing around as well. I also noticed several males around our porch light later last night, but did not see any females.

 

I am assuming this is a Camponotus queen, based on shaped and overall size (she seems even larger than my current Camponotus chromaiodes and pennsylvananicus queens. The one thing that does confuse me is there is an aspect of her that is very different from my current queens -and that is a presence of a very pronounced node in between her thorax and gaster as seen in the photo below. My current queens do not seem to have this. Any thoughts on that? I put the new queen and my holder queen below to show what I mean.

 

 

New Queen

 

 

Current Queen

 

 

 

 

[Mercutia]

Do you have a picture of her head?

[Tspivey16]

Below is the only other one I currently have of her.

 

 

[Crystals]

Definitely a Camponotus queen.  Possibly pennsylvanicus. Does she have any red on her?  She looks all black in the pictures, and Ohio only has 2 pure black species listed.

She is a bit thin, which is why you can see her node so easily.

 

You can offer her a drop of sugar water on some tin foil if you want.

[Tspivey16]

Thanks! Yeah, she is all black - her gaster has some lighter golden shades in stripes.

 

She seemed to do alot of tugging on the cotton in the test tube last night - but it was the first night. Perhaps an indication she hasn't mated? But I also realize it is early to determine.

[Mercutia]

I'd leave her for a few days. I notice Camponotus are extra fussy. If after 4-5 days she is still pulling I would hazard to say she is unmated.

[Tspivey16]

Camponotus are everywhere - I just picked up a wingless queen on the sidewalk at the office.

[Crystals]

Nice finds.

These queens like to pick the perfect spot and, in the queens mind, an over-sized glass tube is no substitute for a nice wood branch.  After 3-4 days she will settle down and come to terms with her new house. 

 

Among the ants, I find that Camponotus tend to have a high fertility rate, unless they are flying extremely late in the season.

[Tspivey16]

She has indeed settled. She produced a couple of eggs, and I caught her in the act of removing her wings:

 

 

[dspdrew]

That's a good sign. Even if they're infertile, sometimes they will still lay some eggs, so it doesn't tell you for sure, but I think it's very good chance shes fertile.