Carpenter Ant: Species: Vicinus:
Reproductive Female (future queen)
The winged females emerge from nests in
the spring. They will try to mate then seek a wet piece of wood to
establish a new nest. She will then pull off her wings and burrow
into the wood where she will spend the rest of her life (15 to 20 years)
laying eggs. She has enough food stored in her body, including the
wing muscles, to feed her first babies until they are mature and can
bring back food for her and the next batch of newborns. The blue lines in the background are spaced 1/4 inch. This ant
is about 3/4 of an inch long, nose to wing tips. She was captured
shortly after emerging from a nest in the ceiling of a home, April 30,
2001. She was alive while modeling for this photo and would not stay in
the centre of the lens. (Note: one of her antennas is missing)
Magnification: approximately 10 times |
 |
Like many of her sisters, this potential queen
died while trying to escape from the interior of a home near a window.
Winged ants can not fly well and they usually move towards outside light.
Note the smoothly rounded thorax (mid section) and the single node or
spike between the two body segments. The legs are a rusty red color.
Workers in a nest will have similar characteristics but can be much
smaller. There are usually 5 different sizes of ants in a carpenter
ant nest.
Magnification: approximately 10 times |
 |
Reproductive males with wings emerge from nests in
the spring to mate with the future queens. Once they have
fertilized a queen, they all die, probably of starvation. The
males do no work and are often pushed out of the nest by female workers
at mating time. Males are smaller than reproductive females.
The abdomen is long and slender. The head quite small and the
mandibles are very small. They can not chew wood. They
are harmless to the structure of a home but are usually the worst
nuisance because so many of them are obvious flying toward windows
during mating season. Their presence inside a home indicates there is at
least one well established nest in the structure.
Magnification: approximately 13 times |
 |
| Carpenter ants have a single node (abdominal
pedicel) between the thorax and abdomen. It is quite visible using a
magnifying glass.
Magnification: approximately 60 times
|
 |
| Powerful mandibles are capable of ripping out wood fibers
in the process of making tunnels for a nest. |
 |
Sexy Eyes.....If you study these
girls long enough you can eventually get to love them.
They are very dedicated mothers and will lay about 70,000 eggs during
their lifetime of 15 to 20 years. Once the first small brood is old
enough to gather food, the queen does nothing but lay eggs. She never
leaves her nest. When the nest gets too crowded, the workers will carry
larvae to a new satellite nest where they are fed and cared for until
they develop into adults.
Magnification: approximately 60 times |
 |
| .........and da hip bone's connected to da leg bone.
All 6 legs on an ant are connected closely to an area at the rear of
the thorax (mid section)
Note the rusty red color, typical on the mid section of the Vicinus
species.
Magnification: approximately 60 times |
 |
| Hairs on the abdomen are another distinctive
characteristics of carpenter ants.
Magnification: approximately 60 times
|
 |
| A distinguishing characteristic of ants is the obvious
antennae elbow.
Magnification: approximately 60 times
|
 |
| Different species of ants can be identified by the number
of antennae segments.
Magnification: approximately 60 times
|
 |
| The antennae of ants are sense organs having
the function of touch and smell. They will often follow the pheromone
trail laid out by other ants by touching their antennae to the surface
they are crawling on. If the antennae becomes
contaminated with a foreign substance such as a pesticide, they
will attempt to clean them with their front legs. Ants leaving
nests in a building that has had a pest control treatment are
often observed performing this grooming behavior.
|
  |
|
Carpenter Ant Nest
A Modoc species moving larvae in a newly exposed
nest. Note the various sizes of larvae and pupae.
The
developing ant is visible through the opaque skin of the larvae.
This photo was taken using a digital camera with macro lens, not our
digital microscope. For more nest photos
click here.
Workers Transferring food:
http://www.myrmecos.net/images/CamMod4.html
|
 |
|
The information above is copied with permission from the
P.C.S.
Gulf Islands web site
Copywrite protected 2003.©
Use of this material for any purpose is prohibited without the written
permission of P.C.S. Gulf Islands.
We welcome enquiries from students and teachers.
|
Credits:
The thumbnail photos below are copied from
http://www.myrmecos.net
. This excellent web site is published by Alex Wild, Department of
Entomology, University of California, Davis. Mr. Wild has
generously shared hundreds of his high quality insect photographs in a
well organized and easy to navigate format. Please visit this non commercial
web site.
Click on any of the thumbnail photos below for a larger view. |
 |
| subgenus Camponotus
[top]
subgenus Myrmaphaenus
[top]
subgenus Myrmentoma
[top]
subgenus Myrmepomis
[top]
subgenus Myrmobrachys
[top]
subgenus Myrmomalis
[top]
subgenus Myrmopiromis
[top]
subgenus Myrmosphincta
[top]
subgenus Myrmothrix
[top]
subgenus Tanaemyrmex
[top] |
|
