Species comparison

Camponotus fallax vs Camponotus lateralis

Side by side: difficulty, size, growth, climate, hibernation and nuptial flights, from the data and sources of each species sheet.

Head to head

Camponotus fallax and Camponotus lateralis compared fact by fact
Camponotus fallaxCamponotus lateralis
Keeping
Difficulty
5/7

Intermediate

Easier4/7

Beginner

Escape risk
Medium
Medium
Diet
SugarInsects
SugarInsects
Best nests
Wooden nest · Ytong nest · Naturalistic setup
Wooden nest · Ytong nest · Acrylic nest
Colony
Growth
Moderate
Moderate
Colony size
Reaches 300 workers
Reaches 1,000 workers
Workers
4–8 mm

majors up to 9 mm

3–7 mm

Many sizes

Queen
8–11 mm
8–10 mm
Colony founding
Fully claustral

One queen

Fully claustral

One queen

Defense
Bites · Sprays formic acid
Bites · Sprays formic acid
Climate
Nest temperature
21–27 °C
21–27 °C
Nest humidity
40–50 %
40–60 %
Hibernation
5–10 °C

Nov – Mar

8–12 °C

Nov – Feb

Nuptial flights
Apr – Jun

Hot days

Apr – May

Hot days · Calm weather

Native range
Europe, North Africa, Middle East
Europe, North Africa, Middle East

Size to scale

  • Camponotus fallax

    Workers · 4–8 mm
    Majors · ≤ 9 mm
    Queen · 8–11 mm

  • Camponotus lateralis

    Workers · 3–7 mm
    Queen · 8–10 mm
10 mm: both species are drawn at the same scale

Their year side by side

  • Camponotus fallax : Hibernation: Nov – Mar, Nuptial flights: Apr – Jun

  • Camponotus lateralis : Hibernation: Nov – Feb, Nuptial flights: Apr – May

Months for temperate Europe and the Mediterranean. The weather decides the exact days, so flights can come earlier or later where you live.

How to tell them apart

Camponotus fallax

Slender dark ants with sparse hairs, paler legs and pale edges on the gaster segments, usually black but sometimes with a reddish pronotum or thorax, mostly in the south, plus a few broad-headed majors, that freeze or sprint away when disturbed. Keepers mix them up with Camponotus piceus, C. lateralis and the rare C. tergestinus, so a microscope check is needed to be sure, and the notch in the front edge of the clypeus is the quickest clue.

  • Tip Copy the dead wood a founding queen would choose: a cardboard or wood mat in the test tube or a small wooden chamber, darkness and quiet. Offer a drop of honey in the first days, with a small soft insect if you like, since the queens take the honey far more eagerly, then take everything out after a day and leave her alone, because this queen is nervous and slow to start.
  • Watch out Small workers drown easily. One Italian colony died when its workers dug into the cotton of the water tank while the keeper was away, and in the same diary thread another keeper reported that carpenter ant workers kept drowning in sugary liquid despite rescue twigs, so offer honey in small drops and keep any cotton plug of a water tank out of their reach.

Camponotus lateralis

Small, slender workers with a reddish-brown head (sometimes the thorax too) and a black gaster with a pale yellow edge on each segment, in sizes that grade smoothly from minors to bigger majors. They imitate Crematogaster scutellaris but have a single waist segment instead of two, and since the group has several close look-alikes such as the glossy black Camponotus piceus, a colony sold under this name can turn out to be a close relative.

  • Tip Give the colony a compact, dry, warm nest and a separate water source. It comes from dry, sunny Mediterranean woodland and does not like damp, and one keeper's colony kept its brood in a corner away from the moist part of the nest.
  • Watch out Be patient with founding queens. This is a slow starter that can take a long time to lay, and the first batch of workers is small. Keepers advise leaving a young colony in its test tube, with its water reserve, through the first winters instead of hurrying it into a nest.

More comparisons

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Camponotus fallax sheet Camponotus lateralis sheet

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