Big-headed ant
Pheidole pallidula
Temperature
24–28 °C
Humidity
40–60 %
Hibernation
None needed
Where it comes from
- Range
- The Mediterranean basin
- Size
- Minors 2–3 mm, majors 4–5 mm, queen 6–8 mm
- Queens
- One queen
Keeping them
- Diet
- Insects and seeds
- Founding
- Fully claustral — the queen needs no food until her first workers
- Brood development
- Egg to worker in roughly 4–6 weeks at 27 °C
- Nest
- Warm and mostly dry, with a damp corner and a well-sealed outworld
- Wintering
- No winter rest — keep them warm all year
Explosive growth and real soldiers with oversized heads. No hibernation, so they keep running through the winter — and so do you.
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.