A colony of Camponotus nicobarensis Mayr, 1865 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) nesting in teapots: just an anecdotal 'nature curiosity' or also a warning against possible ant invasiveness?

Camponotus nicobarensis Mayr is an oriental ant species, very popular among amateur ant breeders and easily available in online stores worldwide. At the same time, paradoxically, the professional myrmecological literature offers very little information about its biology or ecology. This report presents the case of a colony of C. nicobarensis kept in a home breeding facility in Warsaw, which escaped from a formicarium it had occupied for several years and, upon exploring the flat, voluntarily chose to relocate its nest into an empty ceramic teapot. Eight months later, the entire colony spontaneously moved to another teapot standing next to it. In each of these vessels, the queen laid eggs and full development of the offspring took place there, which testifies to an extraordinary nesting plasticity and considerable adaptability of the species. After five consecutive months, when the colony size had increased significantly, a group of workers with a large number of larvae moved back to the previously inhabited teapot, creating a branch nest there. The ants were nocturnal, searching the apartment (mainly the kitchen) for food; in the summer, they also ventured out onto the balcony. Based on these observations we drew attention to the possible adverse effects of the mass and virtually unrestricted online trading of exotic ants worldwide as potentially invasive species. These dangers can be particularly grave when insufficient knowledge about the species’ biology makes it difficult to assess the true invasive potential of species being traded.