On Tuesday, I was looking for queen ants, and I spotted an odd looking ant. I caught her in a snap cap vial, and realized she was a Ponera sp queen! These ants are rarely seen, and they are semi-claustral, which means the queens must leave their claustral chambers to forage for food. Below is an image of my Ponera queen.
On Friday, I was queen hunting and noticed a worker carrying a queen back to the nest to be used as food. The worker dropped the queen, and the very lucky queen ran away, where I subsequently caught her. She was a Myrmica sp queen, which is the other genus of semi-claustral ants found in New Jersey, alongside Ponera. Myrmica ants have extremely painful stings, which earned them the name, “fire ants.
