Camponotus reichardti

Camponotus reichardti (Bronze Carpenter Ant)

This variety of carpenter ant originates from Asia, particularly Xinjiang, China. It's an incredibly vibrant species with hues of red, orange and bronze throughout its body. Due to its extremely rare nature within the hobby, information on their care is limited.  

Like the queens, workers are typically bronze/reddish. They are polymorphic and have different worker castes; minors, medias and majors. Queens are approximately 13-14mm in size with workers being 5-12mm. 

They are a relatively fast species of ant when agitated and will spray formic acid! As a hardy and fast growing species, they seem to adapt well to most environments from test tubes to small founding nests such as the Myrmeco nano. 

In terms of keeping parameters, we would recommend keeping them around 24-26.5C and a humidity level of 40-50%. 

Due to the continental climate of their natural environment, these ants are active most of the year with a short hibernation period during the months of November - March. 

It is illegal and strictly frowned upon to release any non-native ants into the wild.