Acrobat ant
Crematogaster scutellaris
Temperature
24–28 °C
Humidity
50–70 %
Hibernation
November – February
Where it comes from
- Range
- The Mediterranean basin, in dead wood and cork bark
- Size
- Workers 3–6 mm, queen 9–11 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 6–8 weeks at 26 °C
- Nest
- Cork or wood if you can, warm and moderately damp
- Wintering
- 10–15 °C
Named for the heart-shaped gaster they tip over their back when alarmed. Climbers by nature, and keen on wood to nest in.
Check it yourself
General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.