World's Largest Big-Headed Ants Pheidole sinica

Pheidole (Ceratopheidole) sinica has huge majors of 8–9 mm and a queen of around 13 mm, is the largest Pheidole species in Asia. Compared to Pheidole noda, they are way larger with majors double the noda's majors' size. Sinica are very raiding and aggressive ants, to defeat and destroy their opponents, they will look for other colonies, hunt, and use large swarming tactics.

They are excellent escape artists so you will need good escape prevention such as our PTFE Fluon.

The queen ant is claustral and the colony is monogyne. Suitable for beginners with experience of at least one year as these ant species show higher requirements for climate.

This ant species is often found in China, where they live in open land, woodland and wood margins.  Despite their small size, they eat a lot when the colony grows large. The Queen’s size is around 13mm The workers are small - 4,5 to 5mm - reddish brown to yellowish brown. Soldiers are impressive - 8 to 10mm with huge heads and massive mandibles, almost the size of the queen's ones.

Feed them organic honey, insects (small fruit flies, houseflies and small crickets) and occasionally sesame, chia or millet seeds. We have upgraded our Protein Jelly formula so it's the perfect substitution for live food. These ants do not need a hibernation.

Since the queens of this species of Pheidole resemble Carebara spp. in size and colour, but most significantly, in terms of aggression and predator-prey reaction, many hobbyists draw comparisons between them. But in contrast to other Carebara species, this one settles into captivity rapidly and adjusts to its new habitat with ease.

Make sure you maintain the following air humidity and temperature inside your ant farm kit:

Air humidity:   Arena: 50 - 60%; Nestpart: 60 - 70%; Make sure you provide adequate ventilation.Temperature: Arena: 21 - 30°C;  Nestpart: 24 - 28°C - you will need a heating mat here in the UK!Kind of Ant Nest: Substrate or Plaster bedding (options with built-up heating).Outworld size: Small to Medium depending on the colony size.Outworld Substrate: Sand or sand-loam (dry).Decoration: pebbles, leaflitter, twigs, dried moss etc.

Colony can reach approx. 3000 workers in the wild only. We've managed to reach around 1000 workers for 2 years.