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Asian Weaver Ant Queen

Oecophylla smaragdina

Photo by John B.
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Formicidae; Formicinae; Oecophylla; Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775). On July 2, 2023 I spotted a solitary Asian Weaver Ant Queen - https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/952666196..... She still had her wings and I thought she might move on to another place to establish a new colony, but I visited her from time to time, over the last eight days and she did not leave. This morning, there were 3 queens there, and I think it is safe to assume that the original queen is one of them. Since they have all cast off their wings, it must be their intention to stay in that small Citrus Tree to start a new colony. Wikipedia says "Weaver ant colonies are founded by one or more mated females (queens)". So, I will now continue checking on the progress of not just one queen, but three queens..

Habitat:

These Asian Weaver Ant Queens were spotted in our backyard on a young Citrus sp.

Notes:

When I "zoomed in" to my pictures, during preparation of this spotting, I thought that I could see some small white "eggs" or "larvae", showing just to the left of the queen in the centre of picture #3, but I can't be sure. It might just be "wishful thinking" and my photos are not clear enough to be certain. Perhaps the coming days will clarify what is going on.

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