Camponotus angusticollis (Giant, Long Legged Carpenter Ant)

Camponotus angusticollis (Giant, Long Legged Carpenter Ant)
 
This variety of tropical ant originates from South East Asia and is found across territories such as Indonesia, Malaysia and China. This Giant, Long Legged Carpenter Ant is in fact, the largest Carpenter Ant species in China! It was once referred to as Dinomyrmex ashokai, due to its sheer size with queens reaching a mean size of 28mm, can you believe it? The queen's worker force are no less impressive, with workers averaging 12-18mm (that's almost a Camponotus japonicus queen to you and I) AND majors reaching 24mm. Let's put it this way, you wouldn't want to get bitten by one of these ladies!
 
Like the queens, workers are typically reddish black in colouration. However, unlike the queen, workers are extremely slender, especially their long thin necks which have an uncanny resemblance to giraffe necks! It is thought that this is possibly an adaptation to extracting specific nectars from different flowers and plants with long stems. 
 
As with large species, their development is rather slow but once they reach 30-40+ workers, they seem to establish themselves rather steadily over time as long as they are provided with sufficient protein in the form of freshly killed or live insects. 
 
In our experience, it is imperative that founding queens are introduced in 25mm test tubes as a minimum rule as otherwise, they tend to become quite agitated and stressed. Moreover, our large Nursery tubes have also proved to be very effective at raising young colonies from single queens in the past.
 
This species thrives at a temperature of 25-28C and a relatively high humidity level of 60-70%. 
 
In the wild, mature nests (no bigger than a few hundred individuals) are often found amongst the leaf litter of subtropical rainforests. As night enroaches, one will find workers foraging in higher concentrations than during the day due to their largely nocturnal behaviour. 
 
They are a fast species of ant and when agitated will come out in force and bite! Due to the nature of their natural environment, these ants do not require hibernation.
 
It is illegal and strictly frowned upon to release any non-native ants into the wild.