Ant workers perform several different tasks, including caring for eggs, larvae and the queen; cleaning and patrolling the nest; foraging; defending against invaders and parasites. Typically, younger workers remain in the nest to take care of eggs and larvae while older ones perform more risky duties, such as foraging outside and defending the colony. In this footage, we can observe a young worker helping the queen to lay an egg, which will be moved to the nearest egg pile.
Category: Ghost ants – Tapinoma Melanocephalum
Ghost ant feast.
Ghost ant (Tapinoma melanocephalum) workers mostly need carbohydrates as a source of energy and they love to consume honeydew excreted by mealybugs and aphids. In an artificial nest, a colony can be almost exclusively fed with maple syrup and sucrose solution droplets. Nevertheless, a certain amount of protein is needed since larvae and reproductive adults rely heavily on proteins for growth and egg production respectively. Our big ghost ant colony is avidly feeding on this piece of king mealworm (Zophobas morio) since the queens just produced a large number of eggs and tens of larvae are already developing.
Ghost ant colony
This large colony of ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum) has been found under a flowerpot inside an apartment in The Capital Region: two queens, one with and one without wings, are clearly recognizable on the the picture.