Help me ID these Big Freaking Ants

[Totenkampf]

well i doubt the roids would have still been good but i better go check my creatine malate and nitrous oxide!

[barberking12]

ya thats bigger than i was thinking lol the ants found the steroids

[Totenkampf]

the queens are 2.5 inches including the folded wings, the size of some smaller tarantula hawks. the drones are 1.5 inches and as large as red wasps. they have waists and appear to be ants, as tonyo pointed out, but i am going to explore large termites too. there are africanized bees at the back of the propoerty so heck why not some big african hill making termites? i guess it wouldnt surprise me...

[barberking12]

how big are they they look little from the pics

[Totenkampf]

yes they do have some big ones in africa that might be like this, but these are in texas and seemd to be going into ant burrows. if you have a link to some other types of termites that are here in texas and could ber these then i would love to see htat, termites that big would be an issue for sure!

[barberking12]

there are different types of termites then the white ones ur thinking of

[Totenkampf]

Feed to your fish. If your fish eat them then they are fish food ants.

lulz, i dont have a fish big enough to eat these. that would have been a good idea though if i had cichlids. too bad i orthened the lot of em. whatever they are i dont want a million colonies of them around. of course now i wont have earthworms for a while there either, or anything else. :(

[sunkenmetal]

Feed to your fish. If your fish eat them then they are fish food ants.

[Totenkampf]

not termites, they are definately ants. i used to hunt termites for frog food so i do know the difference. they are also 100x bigger than a termite.

[barberking12]

termites

[Totenkampf]

Termite workers are white with tiny little eyes, if any eyes at all. Also, winged termites will not have a narrowed "waist." If there is an area where it narrows between the thorax and abdomen, then it is a member of the Suborder Apocrita of the Order Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, sawflies). Termites belong to a different group altogether. That's how you can distinguish between the two groups.

I didn't look at the pics very closely (on my phone), but given the size, it could be a species of Camponotus, but I think it might be Atta texana. I wonder if there are males in there, because it seems about the time for nuptial flights to take place... of course, my timing may be off (and my ID, as well) because I haven't been as observant of these things since I moved to Texas and hae switched from field work to a lab. If it is the leafcutters, the entire area under your shed is probably a nest with a big fungus garden.

I agree, definately not termites...i was aware of the body segment difference as well. A.texana is supposed to have three horns or spikes on their back? I did not see this on the queens and drones but i did not examine the workers too closely. They didnt have overly big mandibles like many leafcutters do though. If it doesnt show up well in the pics, the ant bodies are a deep purplish color. I went to the TAMU website because they do alot of reseach on ants but they didnt have any good pictures of queens and drones from the Red Harvesters and Crazy ant types.

[aquabee]

Go entomology!

[TonyO]

Termite workers are white with tiny little eyes, if any eyes at all. Also, winged termites will not have a narrowed "waist." If there is an area where it narrows between the thorax and abdomen, then it is a member of the Suborder Apocrita of the Order Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, sawflies). Termites belong to a different group altogether. That's how you can distinguish between the two groups.

I didn't look at the pics very closely (on my phone), but given the size, it could be a species of Camponotus, but I think it might be Atta texana. I wonder if there are males in there, because it seems about the time for nuptial flights to take place... of course, my timing may be off (and my ID, as well) because I haven't been as observant of these things since I moved to Texas and hae switched from field work to a lab. If it is the leafcutters, the entire area under your shed is probably a nest with a big fungus garden.

[mgarrido]

Termites

[aquabee]

Termites! **shudder**