Camponotus humilior (Sugar Ant)
Camponotus humilior (Sugar Ant)
An unusual nocturnal species of ant which belongs to the African Camponotus maculatus group.
Found in the northern territories of Australia, this subtropical ant favours temperatures between 24-26C and a humidity level of 55-65%. In the wild, these are always found within clay substrate and whilst colonies progress well in artifical setups such as Y-Tong blocks, it has been observed that colonies exhibit higher vigour in naturalistic habitats. This may be linked with their nocturnal behaviour.
It is quite a spectacular sight to see a mature colony of these as like Camponotus lownei, they present almost completely white feet. Imagine hundreds of white footed workers huddled up!
Colony growth occurs at a fairly high pace, especially once the first 20-30 workers eclose. As other species of this genus, the first small majors tend to start appearing after the first 50-100 individual mark. These rival the size of the queen!
All in all, we would recommend this colourful ant as a beginner species due to their hardy nature, high acceptance rate of different foods and temperature tolerance.
It is illegal and strictly frowned upon to release any non-native ants into the wild.
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