Messor Cephalotes are many peoples dream species, Queens are around 20-24mm long and have a beautiful red and brown/black colouration. They make Messor barbarus look tiny vs these beasts.
This species is mostly found in East Africa including Kenya and Ethiopia it is very hard for retailers to source hence why it is not often sold.
This species like most Messor has different size worker castes which can range from up to 18mm long majours. They have a beautiful black and red colouration combined with their sheer size truly amazing to visually observe.
In the wild they will nest mainly in open plains and usually have massive mounds of soil and seed casing which indicates their nest’s locations which can be meters long.
This species can stress due to vibrations or excess checking in founding stages please check once a week and no more and maybe for 1 min or less and wait until first workers and keep in a place with little to no vibrations/movement.
We are listing this species at a much better price to increase the accessibility vs most companies, in addition we are also including Royal Mail 24 hour delivery for the UK in the price for a peace of mind.
We insure live arrival of the Queen as per our terms and conditions below.
Before first workers come, we recommend feeding Messor cephalotes our sugar shake or honey water every 2 weeks to increase the probability of founding and you can check on them during this time briefly. One or two drops is enough.
Keeping difficulty: moderate (Kept at least 2 or more species)
Colonyform: Monogyne
Queen size: 20-24mm black and red
Worker’s size: 4mm-18mm (Highly Polymorphic) black and red
Food: honey water and insects and seeds
Temp: 20-26°C
Humidity: 50-70%
Founding: claustral without feeding
Colonysize: 1-10,000 workers
Hibernation: NO
Live arrival guarantee:
We guarantee the live arrival of your Queen they come well packed in our jiffy bags which have two-sided padding as well as an additional layer of bubble wrap around our test tubes. We are the only company in the United Kingdom to offer our live arrival guarantee of your queen as well as an additional 14-day guarantee if the colony if kept in the original test tube for all our European species. Why do we do this? We are confident with our colony’s health and our packaging process as well as our care guides, we also believe in our customers and making sure they have a good ant keeping experience.
Be aware of sellers only using the Live arrival guarantee and not the 14-day additional warranty on European ant species it might be slightly cheaper but could end up paying more in the long run, also all our products are sold as starter kits including food and a pipette.
We do require photographic evidence of the queen in the original test tube for validating the guarantee once outside the test tube and in a nest the environment is outside of our control.
It is illegal to release non-native species of ants into the wild and could damage the local ecosystem so bare this in mind we have a duty to our environment.
Live arrival guarantee for exotics, we ensure the live arrival of the queen only upon delivery contact us within 24-48 hours of receiving the Queen dead on arrival with a picture of the dead queen and the original workers. DO NOT TRANSFER THE DEAD QUEEN OR WORKERS TO A NEST AS THIS VOIDS YOUR WARRNTY. For our additional 14-day guarantee for European species the Queen and workers must be kept in the original test tube sealed with the cotton and care sheet instructions followed if you want to keep this additional guarantee do not transfer to a nest or your warranty is VOIDED (we recommend you keep the 14-day warranty).
We have no control over the environment outside the test tube and have no influence in the conditions the responsibility once placed outside the test tube within the 14-day period the responsibility is with the buyer. 9 times out of 10 colonies die in the nest due to lack of water access, food, temperature, oxygen, or stress due to vibrations or exposure to excess light. If your colony does fail inside a nest contact us, we can advise what went wrong but it is up to you to buy another ant colony, you will succeed but sometimes it does not work the first time. Research is key to success with ant keeping and follow our guides.
