Brown-black carpenter ant

Camponotus ligniperda

Where it comes from

Range

Central and northern Europe, in and under dead wood

Size

Workers 6–14 mm, majors to 18 mm, queen 16–18 mm

Queens

One queen

Keeping them

Diet

Sugar water and insects

Founding

Fully claustral — the queen needs no food until her first workers

Brood development

Egg to worker in roughly 8–10 weeks at 25 °C

Nest

A roomy nest with a moisture gradient; wood is welcome but not required

Wintering

5–10 °C

Slow to start: the first year is mostly waiting, and the reward is one of the largest workers you can keep in Europe.

Starting a colony

Camponotus ligniperda queens fly in late spring and early summer, mostly in May and June, on warm sunny days. At 16–18 mm a queen is hard to miss, and one walking along a sunny forest edge without wings has mated and is looking for a place to found her colony.

House her in a test tube: water at the back behind a plug of cotton wool, the queen in the dry front half, and a loose plug at the opening. Cover it and leave it alone. She is fully claustral and lives on her own reserves until her first workers arrive. At 25 °C, egg to worker takes roughly 8–10 weeks, and longer at a cooler room temperature.

Patience is part of the deal. A queen caught in May may have only a handful to a dozen or so small workers by autumn, and that is a normal result. Expect the brood to slow down in late summer even if you keep it warm: like other northern Camponotus, many of the larvae wait for a winter before they develop further. A tube full of larvae that do not seem to grow in September is not a problem.

Feeding

Sugar is the staple. In the wild this species lives largely on aphid honeydew, carried home in the crop and passed from ant to ant. Give sugar water or diluted honey, and protein when there are larvae: a fruit fly, a cricket or a cut mealworm. Keep the portions small in the first year, when a few workers cannot eat much, and remove uneaten insects after a day. Like many Camponotus it is most active in the evening and at night.

The nest

In the wild Camponotus ligniperda nests in dead wood, old stumps and the soil under stones, usually in warm, sunny spots at the edge of a forest. In captivity the ants do not need wood: Ytong, plaster and acrylic nests all work, as long as there is a moisture gradient from a damp end to a dry one. Workers range from 6 to 14 mm and the majors reach 18 mm, so the chambers and tunnels need to be roomier than for a small species.

Keep the young colony in its test tube until it gets crowded, which may not be until its second year. Room temperature works for this species, and a heat source under one end of the nest in summer speeds up the brood. Never heat the whole nest: the workers need a cooler side to move to.

Hibernation

Camponotus ligniperda needs a winter rest from October to March at 5–10 °C: a cellar, an unheated room or a fridge. Lower the temperature over a couple of weeks and stop offering insects. Check the water every few weeks, because a test tube that dries out over the winter kills the colony. In spring, warm them up gradually. The larvae that waited through the autumn usually start growing again soon after.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a fast start. Year one is slow for every Camponotus.
• Thinking the colony has stalled when the brood stops in late summer.
• Skipping or shortening the winter.
• Moving a dozen workers into a large nest.
• Checking on the founding queen to see whether there is brood yet.

Questions keepers ask

Does it eat wood? No. Carpenter ants dig in wood but do not eat it. This species prefers soft, decaying wood, and it lives on sugar and insects like any other ant. A nest without wood is fine.

How long until the first workers? About 8–10 weeks at 25 °C, and longer at room temperature.

When do the majors appear? Not in the first batch. A queen's first workers are always small. The big-headed majors come once the colony has grown, usually from the second or third year.

How do I tell it from Camponotus herculeanus? In Camponotus ligniperda the gaster is shiny. In Camponotus herculeanus it is dull, covered in fine hairs. Ligniperda also favours warmer, sunnier places, while herculeanus is an ant of cool conifer forest and the far north.

Check it yourself

• AntWiki: Camponotus ligniperda

General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.

Start a colony with this species

Similar species

• Camponotus herculeanus Hercules carpenter ant

  Northern Europe, Asia and North America, in conifer forest

  20–25 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Camponotus barbaricus Mediterranean carpenter ant

  The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, in dry open country

  24–28 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Formica rufibarbis Red-barbed ant

  Europe from Portugal to western Siberia, on sandy grassland and heath

  22–26 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Manica rubida European red mountain ant

  Central and southern Europe, the Near East and Georgia, at 400–2,200 m

  20–24 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate

All 21 species in the guide