3 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Location:  Costa Mesa, Orange County, California.
Habitat:  Well kept apartment landscaping/Urban.
Coloration, hue and pattern:  All very dark brown, head and gaster slightly darker.
Length:  4.5mm.
Behavior:  These were having a nuptial flight around 5:00 AM, and I caught five of them walking around in my apartment.

Note: I removed the wings to get better pictures.

 

Edit: This species name changed from Pheidole moerens to Pheidole navigans.

Edited by dspdrew, February 3 2017 - 9:43 PM.

[dspdrew]

This is likely Pheidole moerens.

[dspdrew]

Posted 8-22-2013:

 

Something interesting I noticed about these alates: I just stuck four of them together in one container, and two of them together in another container. Of the two, one was the alate I took the wings off of, and the other was the alate that removed its own wings. One of them laid eggs, but I didn't know which one. I wanted to just put the dealate with the eggs into a test tube for now, but I wasn't sure which one it was, so I just left them for a little longer to see if I might get some sort of clue. The next day I looked in there, and one of them had ripped the head off the other, and it was sitting over the eggs. I assume this is probably the one that laid the eggs, so either way, I moved it into a test tube. Now I noticed that none of the other four alates have removed their wings or laid any eggs. Also, none of them seem to be fighting any of the others. There definitely seems to be something much different about this one dealate, so I'm starting to wonder if maybe it could have possibly mated. If it were the only one I found, I wouldn't think this, but seeing its behavior compared to the behavior of all the others makes me wonder; I guess only time will tell.

[Gregory2455]

Hmm... They look a lot like mine...