We anticipate these ants to ship by the first week of Marc
Myrmecocystus testaceus, or the Little Honeypot Ant is the only True honeypot species from Canada. This species requires hot conditions, being only known in Canada from a couple records in the Okanagan desert, and last sighted in 2012. Unfortunately, due to the habitat destruction, it is not a species we collect in the area-- our specimens are collected from Northern California, where the species is much more common.
Honeypot ants are well known for their hanging repletes-- workers with specialized social stomachs hanging off the chamber ceilings. In the wild, honeypot ants farm aphids and collect sugar secretions from galls, and nectar from the various desert flowers, and in particular fruits of the Prickly-Pear cactus. Large volumes of this liquid are stored and consumed during times where food is less abundant.
Although honeypot ants will hunt live insects, they are primarily scavengers, eating dried up and dead insects. Interestingly, some Myrmecocystus are associated with harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex and will collect their dried bodies, presumably as a food source.
Honeypot ants must be reared in nests with overhands-- in particular, nests from Tarheel ants are specially designed for these species.
Being a desert species, these ants should be kept at or above 30 degrees Celsius at around 60% humidity.
Thank you to 冯浈皓 for letting us use his amazing photos of this species!
Check out his website, IISDW – Insecta Integration Specimen Database Website
As well, thank you so much to Gary Alpert for his photo of the replete worker
Thank you to @benxixi as well for his photos of the captive colonies!
Shipping Conditions
This species comes from more tropical areas than Canada, and are not cold-tolerant. Thus, we will not ship them in the winter
Just a warning, we will NOT ship live ants into the US unless the receiver has a permit. If such an order is made, it will be refunded, minus a 10% processing fee and restocking fee
This product is from Canada Ant Colony. The full catalogue, including all variants, can be found at https://canada-ant-colony.com