r/ants • • Jul 02 '21

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

51 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!

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37 Upvotes

r/ants • • 6h ago

Chat/General 🔥 ants building their nest from leaves

44 Upvotes

Found this cool video of weaver ants


r/ants • • 5h ago

Keeping Macro Video of Pheidole Workers Tending to Brood Pile

5 Upvotes

Species: Pheidole Obscurithorax

Location: Houston, Texas, USA

Video recorded on Samsung Galaxy s25 Ultra


r/ants • • 1h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Transporter

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• Upvotes

r/ants • • 9h ago

Chat/General Biggest Ant hill I’ve seen in England. Is this a generally big one?

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8 Upvotes

r/ants • • 13h ago

Keeping Rhytidoponera metallica 🇦🇺

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14 Upvotes

r/ants • • 11h ago

News These Dracula Ants Start Hunting on Day One. Their Brains Might Explain Why

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7 Upvotes

r/ants • • 9h ago

Keeping I built a free ant-keeping journal with a nuptial flight map. Looking for feedback from keepers

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2 Upvotes

I've kept ants for a while and got tired of tracking feedings in notes apps, so I built ANTS (ants.arcosants.com), a web app made for ant keepers.

What it does (all free):

  • Colony journal: colonies, care logs and photos, with no colony limit
  • One-tap Feed, plus "Fed 3 days ago" right on each colony
  • Care guides for 16 genera, with real photos and cited sources
  • A nuptial flight map where you can see and report flights by area. Locations are kept coarse, so nobody's address shows up
  • Export of all your data to CSV or JSON. It's your data

It runs in your phone's browser, so there's nothing to install. You can also try a sample account without signing up.

It's early, and I'm one person building it, so I'd really value honest feedback: what's missing, what's annoying, and what would make you switch from what you use now. Flight reports from this season would help the map a lot too.

Thanks, and happy keeping 🐜


r/ants • • 9h ago

Chat/General Help with window sealing from ant invasions

1 Upvotes

They’re always sneaking in thru the section of window I show. The fan is replaceable fortunately but the window… it’s been warmer so they come in but it’s annoying asf because I can’t go a day without seeing one in my stuff. There’s nothing scenty next to the window, my desk is 3” away from the window. They were inside my fan. Idk why, there’s nothing scenty about the thing. Any help would be nice

I’ve contacted maintenance here on campus about it, they haven’t shown a second time yet


r/ants • • 9h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase PHEIDOLE ID URGENT ILLINOIS

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0 Upvotes

r/ants • • 1h ago

Funny I fucking hate ants

• Upvotes

I just hate them soooooo much i live in tropical country and my god ants are everywhere that too red ants
I hate them


r/ants • • 1d ago

News I'm developing an ant colony simulator focused on real ant biology and colony behavior

51 Upvotes

Different species have their own characteristics, and I want the mechanics to reflect actual biology as closely as possible while still making it engaging to play.

I'm still actively developing the game, refining its systems, and expanding its educational depth.

Here's a look at how it's coming along. I'd love to hear what other ant enthusiasts, nature lovers, and simulation fans think.


r/ants • • 1d ago

Keeping 4x Speed Time Lapse of Leptogenys elongata Colony in Their Nest

19 Upvotes

Razor-Jaw Ants

Houston, Texas, USA

Video recorded on Samsung Galaxy s25 Ultra


r/ants • • 16h ago

Keeping I want to make a terrarium type a t farm with a couple twists

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1 Upvotes

r/ants • • 18h ago

Keeping Purchasing a Myrmica Rubra colony

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1 Upvotes

r/ants • • 1d ago

Science 2.0, The Naturalist, is with Apple for review and should be out in the next few days! Here's everything it brings: Thank you all for your support!

7 Upvotes

r/ants • • 1d ago

Chat/General I made a free antkeeping chrome extension I thought you guys might like to try out

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3 Upvotes

r/ants • • 1d ago

Science A guy on Instagram is giving an ant colony an excuse not to work by feeding them sugar 30 days.

63 Upvotes

r/ants • • 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Identification

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3 Upvotes

Hello found this queen ant in the Central Valley of California and was wondering if anybody could help me identify the species. I presume it is a field ant of some kind. I have 3 queens and presume one is a fire ant (as it did bite and sting. Another an acrobat ant. Finally this one which again I presume is a field ant of the formica species. Sorry for picture quality in advance.


r/ants • • 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Help?

3 Upvotes

I have loved ants for so long. i am somewhat educated about the. i live in costa rica, and have recently began to be able to identify the species i see around my property and trees. i have some identifying porblems though. First i identified some atta cephalotes carrying plumaria petal across my lawn, then, some twig ants, and even identified some trapjaws, and pheidoles here and there. Yesterday i saved two little princesses/queens from my pool. i believe one of them had wings attached when i saved her. i put them in a water container to let them dry off. they have been in there for 12 hrs now. now niether have wings. i am not sure if they are princesses, or queens. or if they are firtile or not. i also have noticed some huge mounds at the bases of my trees home to some aggressove little guys that swarm and stuff. bout a mill per colony. i will post a image later trying to identify them. i am not sure if these two little ladies are of the same species, maybe from a nuptial flight that took place in my yard amongst the 5 or so of those huge mounds. i will attatch a picture of the two girlies. thanks for reading! hope you can help identify them. bye


r/ants • • 2d ago

Keeping My Myrmecia nigriscapa Colony Is Slowly Dying. Please Help!

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9 Upvotes

I’ve been keeping a Myrmecia nigriscapa colony, but things have gone terribly wrong.

I originally had three workers, but they all died one by one. The queen had around 10 eggs, but eventually, all of them disappeared as well.

Someone kindly gave me three larvae to help save the colony, but unfortunately, those larvae also gradually died.

As for food, I mainly provided three things:

  • Honey water
  • Sugar water
  • Mealworms

I was keeping the enclosure at 30°C using an automatic temperature controller, but someone told me that might be too hot, so I’ve now lowered it to 25°C.

My little bull ant colony, which had managed to establish a small group of workers, has ended up failing.

I’m honestly desperate at this point. I really want to save this colony if there’s still a chance.

What could be causing these deaths, and what should I change to prevent this from happening again?

Could it be the temperature, diet, humidity, or something else entirely?

Any advice from experienced Myrmecia nigriscapa keepers would mean a lot to me. Please help me figure out what I’m doing wrong. I really don’t want to lose this colony completely.


r/ants • • 2d ago

Keeping C.auriventris

6 Upvotes

r/ants • • 2d ago

Keeping Brood Boosted My Pheidole Obscurithorax Colony With Brood From a Pheidole Colony Found in My Yard.

16 Upvotes

Video recorded on Samsung Galaxy s25 Ultra


r/ants • • 2d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Dolichoderus scabridus... up to busy stuff 🇦🇺

10 Upvotes