Black Hercules - _TNY_2713
The Hercules carpenter ant (Camponotus heculeanus) is the largest ant species in Europe and are black and red in colour.
The eagle-eyed no doubt notice that any red parts are completely missing here. That is because this one is a male which are completely black instead. If you zoom in all the way on this one (it's a 50 megapixel shot so plenty to zoom in) you can see a really neat swirly pattern on the body and head.
This one has just been on his both first and last date and if he was lucky, he was the one that mated with a new queen who hopefully will get to start a new colony.
This guy has already fulfilled his purpose and will die soon though.
There is a small possibility that this instead is a brown-black carpenter ant (C. ligniperda) as they look quite similar - but this one was found as far north as Härnösand, Sweden, which is a bit north of the normal distribution of that species so I'm leaning towards C. herculeanus.
Black Hercules - _TNY_2713
The Hercules carpenter ant (Camponotus heculeanus) is the largest ant species in Europe and are black and red in colour.
The eagle-eyed no doubt notice that any red parts are completely missing here. That is because this one is a male which are completely black instead. If you zoom in all the way on this one (it's a 50 megapixel shot so plenty to zoom in) you can see a really neat swirly pattern on the body and head.
This one has just been on his both first and last date and if he was lucky, he was the one that mated with a new queen who hopefully will get to start a new colony.
This guy has already fulfilled his purpose and will die soon though.
There is a small possibility that this instead is a brown-black carpenter ant (C. ligniperda) as they look quite similar - but this one was found as far north as Härnösand, Sweden, which is a bit north of the normal distribution of that species so I'm leaning towards C. herculeanus.