14 replies to this topic

[McCall1981]

Hello, I am a total beginner with Ants, so please go easy if this is a dumb question. Is this a Queen? The pictures include several of the ants caught with it in case that helps. Thanks.

1. Location: East Bay Area, Northern California, USA. Suburban backyard, found on a brick deck.

2. Date: 3/26/17

3. Habitat: Not sure.

4. Length: About 7mm

5. Coloration: Black, shiny smooth, lighter dark band around gaster.

6. Distinguishing characteristics: Not sure.

7. Distinguishing behavior: Was moving around fairly fast when caught, then has been pretty still in the test tube. Several of the other ants caught with it have clustered around it.

8. Nest description: Don't know.

Attached Files

•  AntPhotos.pdf   115.96KB   87 downloads

[T.C.]

Yes it is! Appears you might have caught a colony in its founding stages. Was there other worker that escaped?

[Ants4fun]

.

Edited by Ants4fun, March 26 2017 - 9:17 PM.

[dspdrew]

http://www.formicult...to-post-photos/

[Runner12]

Looks like Linepithema humile, also known as the invasive Argentine ant

[McCall1981]

Thanks for the info everyone. Too bad it's invasive, but still interesting to know.

[McCall1981]

Yes it is! Appears you might have caught a colony in its founding stages. Was there other worker that escaped?

There were a number of other workers with it, but I couldn't tell how many because they were mostly in an inaccessible spot.

[Batspiderfish]

The perk with invasive ants is that you never have to feel bad about removing them from the wild.

[brbgyn]

Looks like Linepithema humile, also known as the invasive Argentine ant

 

I thought Argentina ants were Tapinoma Melanocephalum

[Runner12]

It's always been Linepithema humile or formerly Iridomyrmex humilis as far as I know

http://www.antwiki.o...epithema_humile

Edited by Runner12, March 27 2017 - 4:10 PM.

[brbgyn]

It's always been Linepithema humile or formerly Iridomyrmex humilis as far as I know

http://www.antwiki.o...epithema_humile

 

Right, Tapinoma Melanocephalum are the Ghost ones

[Batspiderfish]

Well, it hasn't been called Iridomyrmex for almost 100 years. Any two good, binomial classifications are not going to describe the same organism, which is the beauty of not using common names.

Edited by Batspiderfish, March 28 2017 - 5:08 AM.

[Martialis]

Aren't queens of L. humile five millimeters and brown? I may be wrong, but a seven millimeters queen sounds a bit disproportionate for a monomorphic species with three millimeter workers.  

Edited by Martialis, March 28 2017 - 8:10 AM.

[Batspiderfish]

Sometimes people don't measure right, and sometimes queens actually are on the large side. As an invasive genus, argentine ants are pretty distinct from the other Dolichoderinae in North America. Tapinoma is really the only genus similar enough on our continent to get them confused.

[Martialis]

Thanks for explaining that.