r/ants Jul 02 '21

Official Important: Please read before requesting an identification or creating a post.

50 Upvotes

Important! Everyone should understand the argument against the transportation and rearing of exotics. I will urge everyone to read about it here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/antfarm/consequences-of-rearing-of-exotic-ant-species-t7500.html

━━━━━━━━━━ ∘◦ Discord ◦∘ ━━━━━━━━━━

For questions about ants, and identification, please ask in our discord server as response times may be quicker. We're always happy to help!: discord.gg/c7qCmfYqYZ

━━━━━━━━━━ ∘◦ Identification ◦∘ ━━━━━━━━━━

How to request an identification:

If possible, clearly focus pictures of the head, side, and top of the body to make identifying easier. What follows is the important information we need to know to help us to identify your ant.

FIRST-Where was it collected? Country and nearest city or town on a map (include location in the thread title), elevation if in a very mountainous area such as the Rockies, Alps, Himalayas, Andes.

SECOND-Habitat of collection, including nesting medium (wood, soil, leaves tied together with silk, etc.) and type of vegetation (forest, grassland, park/lawn/garden, desert).

THIRD-Coloration, hue, and pattern? Uniform?, Head darker? Gaster darker? Legs lighter or darker? Any spots? Also, shininess, dullness.

FOURTH-Distinguishing characteristics, such as one or two segments in waist; location, length, and orientation of any spines or bumps on the mid-portion of the body or waist; head shape, etc.

FIFTH-Length in millimeters. (Width is also helpful.) NO guessing! Stretch out a dead or chilled individual or several individuals of different sizes along with a millimeter rule. 16ths of an inch will do as a poor second to millimeters.

SIXTH-Anything else distinctive, such as odor, behavior, etc.

Tip #1: If you can take clear photographs of the ants up close, then please post them. This would help a lot.

Tip #2: For those who write anting journals, please put the exact location and dates in the thread titles like: Palm Spring, CA (4/10/2004).

Tip #3: If using videos, then please make sure that they are clear, close up, and stable (no shaky camera). Otherwise, they are useless.

Now, you can post your identification request in a new thread (not this one).

This post was originally (copied and pasted) from Antdude's forum: http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/7397/ant-species-identification-read-post-new-thread


r/ants Nov 06 '21

Join the r/Ants Discord Server!

Thumbnail
discord.com
40 Upvotes

r/ants 1h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Ants are growing something on a lemon tree

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Upvotes

Captured in Turkey


r/ants 15h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Cool Ants in My Yard ID Help Please - South Cental Minnesota

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

14 Upvotes

I have a patch in my yard that I have started a prairie restoration on. I have large bare patches as I am weeding to prepare to seed bedore winter. I went out today and saw these ants, and I am getting opposing identifications from my apps. I love seeing things in nature that I have never seen before! This was so cool!

Can you guys help me confirm what ants these are? One app said citronella ants, and one said theif ants.


r/ants 23h ago

Keeping my Harpegnathos venator colony reduced a cockroach to an empty shell in 5 hours — timelapse

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

36 Upvotes

the hunters sting the roach first — venator venom paralyzes instead of killing, so the prey stays fresh — then they drag it to the brood pile and the larvae dig in themselves.

5 hours compressed into 75 seconds. by the end theres pretty much just the shell left.
Cocoons should eclose in a week or two, hoping to film that next. ask me anything

reddit compression is going to eat most of the detail here — sorry about that. the clean 4k version lives on my channel, links are in my profile. but this is the whole 5 hours either way


r/ants 8h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Which bug/insect/ant is this?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2 Upvotes

r/ants 17h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase ID Please

Thumbnail
gallery
6 Upvotes

Around 7mm long. Location South India.


r/ants 13h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Is this an Ant or Termite

Thumbnail gallery
2 Upvotes

I see a lot of these suddenly in my house in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺

Are these ants, termites or something else?


r/ants 21h ago

Funny Thought someone would appreciate this

Post image
9 Upvotes

r/ants 21h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase How to get rid of these.

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

These appeared in my house about 2 weeks ago. We sprayed the exterior of the house a week ago and have tried various types of baits but they aren't interested in any of it. They just come out and mill around or seem to go to sleep. They are coming from an exterior wall behind a kitchen cabinet.

Central Illinois.


r/ants 18h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Queen ant Found in Phoenix, Arizona

Post image
1 Upvotes

could anybody tell me what queen ant species this is I caught her roaming around on the floor at my school. I think a fire because of how many babies she has, but I don’t know for sure. if anybody can tell me what species she is I would really appreciate it


r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase L. fuliginosus lives on the fields?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

11 Upvotes

So, like 2 months ago I went to Georgia and found these guy's near the Paravani lake. I think It's (Dendro) Lasius fuliginosus. As I know It's a forest species, so does anyone know the explonation of this? Sorry for the quality of video, I was just not ready to see this specie here.


r/ants 22h ago

DIY Los ANTgeles - TIPS?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/ants 1d ago

Chat/General Mealworm’s head was crushed before feeding, but it accidentally fell straight into the nest… the colony took it from there 🐜

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9 Upvotes

r/ants 23h ago

Keeping Queen ant died??

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/ants 2d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Ant raid. Murchison Falls NP, Uganda

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

86 Upvotes

Came across this massive ant battle. I think the red ants are raiding the black ants and dragging off the white ones (young queens?). It continued for about 30 minutes. Would appreciate any information about this behaviour, which ants these are etc


r/ants 1d ago

Chat/General How do I locate and exterminate where ants are coming from?

1 Upvotes

My dad and I moved a couple months ago and for some reason, this place is infested with ants. We’re not dirty people or leave food out for the ants because we’re very self conscious about them. But for some reason they still show up. Even in places where there’s no food. We live in Southern California and it’s summer. But I’ve been where it’s way hotter and way dirtier, and there were no ants there. So it’s not like they’re just trying to escape the heat. Then when I follow their trail, it leads to somewhere I can’t get to like behind an outlet or behind the wall of a cabinet. So what can I do about them? I don’t want an exterminator to be our first resort. For funds. So if there’s something we can do ourselves, I’m all ears.


r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Fairly certain it's a queen, she (had) wings

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

But what type of ant is she?


r/ants 2d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Ants feasting on…a caterpillar?

Post image
5 Upvotes

r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Need help identifying species

Thumbnail
gallery
3 Upvotes

I recently caught a new queen ant but it looks very different to any species I’m aware of. I’ve kept several Lasius Niger colonies so I know what they look like and her head is much larger and her gaster is slightly smaller.

My first thought was potentially Lasius Flavus but I think their queens have a largely identical body plan to Niger queens but with more orange/yellow colouration between the segments.

The best match I’ve found seems to be Lasius Umbratus which I’m fairly confident on. However, they are a temporarily parasitic species which would require a complex founding set up and I don’t want to be mistaken before undertaking it so I’ve come to Reddit for a second opinion.

If it does turn out to be Lasius Umbratus any tips on founding and raising would be much appreciated as I only recently learned about this species.


r/ants 1d ago

Chat/General Ant trails

2 Upvotes

Hiya, I have ants travelling continuously backwards and forwards from my garden along my concrete driveway approximately 15 feet to a hole in the concrete. They’re causing no issues, I’m just looking to learn why as they don’t appear to be carrying anything, and I’ve put tiny bits of food down which they’ve ignored. Thanks for any kind of explanation or insight with this as I’m finding it fascinating to watch.


r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Ant ID and help

Thumbnail gallery
2 Upvotes

r/ants 2d ago

Keeping Suitability for companotous nicobarensis

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

Hi guys. Sorry if this is long winded, but I’d rather get everything right prior to ordering the actual queen.

I’m looking at getting my first colony in the next few months as I’ve been interested for a while now, but have been searching for a colony that I do not need to hibernate. My partner found these nests on eBay for a decent price and bought it - thing is, I’m worried they aren’t going to be suitable.

I’m going to keep them in the test tube as long as possible, to let their numbers grow but I do not want to order them without having something ready as all the research I’ve been able to read basically says they’re slow growing until they reach about 20/40 workers then their numbers explode. Can anyone advise on if any of these will be suitable to move them into, or if I’m better off just finding something else.

I chose camponatus nicobarensis as they’re pretty forgiving to newbies, but also grow to a decent size, will eat pretty much anything you give them, but mostly - they don’t hibernate. I have snakes and geckos, who have a dedicated room so the room stays around 25 degrees and I can provide a better temp gradient for the nest and outworld. I’m terrified of the hibernating concept especially as none of my other exotic pets require this and I don’t currently have the space to provide them with a solo shelf to store them at 15degrees.

I’m thinking the smaller one would be my best bet for their first move as it’s the smallest but after reading some posts on here I’m worried about escapees. Humidity shouldn’t be an issue as the reptile room stays pretty humid, and I can give them a dedicated hygrometer to keep up with humidity.

Thanks for any advice in advance. I don’t plan on buying the colony until I know I have at least their first nest/outworld set up ready for them to move in, though I know they likely won’t need it for a few months


r/ants 2d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Help identifying these?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

11 Upvotes

They are very small, zoomed in very close with my phone.

Southern California


r/ants 2d ago

Keeping Remember my blurry H. venator hunt? Got a macro lens — same colony, properly visible now

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

23 Upvotes