Camponotus festinus

[TenebrousNova]

I was not expecting to be adding another Camponotus colony to my collection, but Chris of Antsrus approached me with an offer I couldn't refuse. The colony's previous owner could no longer look after them and Chris knows how I like my Camponotus, so he asked me if I wanted them. Camponotus festinus is from Asia and is fairly large.

The colony is about two or three years old I'd say, with 120-180 workers and lots of brood. They inhabit two connected nests although currently they use the larger one as a midden.







Here is the queen, a shy but lovely coloured creature. 



And judging by the multiple clutches of eggs being carried around, quite a productive one!



Some parts of the nest are quite loose (I suspect it was custom made) so I'll have to take care to secure the glass front of the nest and the foraging area. I'm very pleased with this colony, but I'm afraid that's going to be it for me for quite a while. I have enough ants at the moment! I'm going to try feeding this colony a bit later, hopefully with more photos then.

As always, comments/feedback are more than welcome.

[Wood~Ant]

Very similar to my pseudo irritans colony, but a bit darker. Not to be confused with Camponotus festinatus which is a completely different species from the USA.

[TenebrousNova]

Most of the colony including the queen quickly absconded from the smaller nest and into the larger one when I connected them. They've also brought a cricket into the smaller nest, where a number of workers remain with a few piles of eggs. They seem to have no interest in sugar water for the moment. There is a test tube filled with water in their foraging area and I suppose that's where they prefer to drink from.



One of the larger majors:



Eggs and young larvae being carried down the tube and into the larger nest:

[TenebrousNova]

The colony has taken a cricket and started nibbling at a mealworm, but they still don't seem very interested in sugar water. Two workers did drink from a droplet of it though, which is a start I guess?

There's loads of eggs right now, which I thought I'd show you today.

[TenebrousNova]

The colony has been feeding voraciously. In the last hour or so they've drunk five or six large drops of sugar water.



Many of the workers are still staying in the smaller nest.