2 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

1. Location of collection:  Pinyon Pines, San Jacinto Mountains, California.
2. Date of collection:  3-16-2014.
3. Habitat of collection:  Pinyon pine high desert scrub.
4. Length (from head to gaster):  3mm (Workers), 10mm (Queen).
5. Color, hue, pattern and texture:  All yellow.
6. Distinguishing characteristics:
7. Anything else distinctive:  All workers in the colonies I collected were the same size.
8. Nest description:  Most had a 3 to 5 inch circle of dirt scattered around a small hole, I did see one much larger, almost 2 feet.
 
I found two whole colonies of these, including the queen and a few larvae. I dug both of them up with just one little scoop with my pocket trowel. There are maybe 10 to 15 workers in each colony, so I'm thinking they may be fairly young, if not from just last summer.
 

 

 

 
 
Queen
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
Nest
 

 

 
 
Habitat
 

[dspdrew]

These things make some of the strangest looking nests I've seen yet. They also look like miniature replicas of Myrmecocystus testaceus or mexicanus. After trying to key these out, I'm going to guess they're either M. christineae, or M. navajo.

[dspdrew]

Looks like Harpegnathos ran through the key using the images I provided and came back with M. navajo, so I was on the right track.