How to Identify the Queen in Predatory Ants

Many beginners often ask:

How do you tell the queen apart in predatory ants?

Compared with other ants,

the thing about ponerine ants is that the queen is hard to distinguish.

Because unless she is physogastric (swollen with eggs, which only a few ponerines become, such as Leptogenys species),

there is basically only a slight difference.

Harpegnathos

Odontoponera

Pachycondyla

Can you see it?

The thorax is the key!

The queen has traces of where her wings were,

and her thorax is noticeably bulkier,

because she needs to store nutrients

to feed the next generation.

Next,

a simple way to narrow it down

is to look near the eggs

for the one that moves the least.

Now, whether the nest is flat or three-dimensional,

once you know how to identify her,

it is so much easier!

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