6 replies to this topic

[antRhu]

Good afternoon,

Whilst having a wander this evening I came across a small nest with a mound 1 -2 inches across and a single entrance on a dirt road next to some scrubby jungle. There were hundreds of tiny workers (2-3mm) and a few larger (what I thought were) majors (4-5mm) around the entrance. Peacefully coexisting....

I scooped up a couple of the workers and a major into a test tube and brought it back to ID (I'm brand new to this so I'm checking everything I find, to see what I might end up with when nuptial flights start..)

Back at the house, magnifying glass in hand (after about 3/4 of an hour of happy and peaceful test tube co-existence) I turned back from the computer to find one of the workers riding the 'major' and viciously stinging it in the head... 'till dead.... Now I in my innocence thought I'd got some Pheidole sp. which was exciting, but I was unsure that this was normal Pheidole behavior (at this point I should point out that I'm color blind....)

My investigations took a different turn...at this point I'm going to apologize for the photos..I know that some of them are little more than silhouettes, but I don't have a macro lens, or even a DSLR and these ants were tiny..I did my best.

Now I'm pretty sure that Ant #1 (the 'major') is/was a Solenopsis sp. (invictus possibly, although the mandibles seem big and the antennae seem a little long)

ant#1

 

 

But the smaller ants have got me stumped.

The next photo is to give an idea of the relative sizes of the ants, I know there's no ID coming from this one.

 

 

So our psychotic worker has a head that is about twice the size of it's gaster, massive mandibles, crazy long antenna and is capable of riding and stinging Solenopsis (invicta???) to death....in the head.. (it was a little traumatic to see, I'm not going to lie)

Ant#2

 

 

 

 

I've been through the AntMaps site and the AntWiki page for each of the native Solenopsis to Quintana Roo and I can't nail it down, so even if you can't give me an ID then idea of some other keys that I can use would be great, or if it's not Solenopsis then I can wander off on my merry way and look at some other genera.

Thanks in advance

R

[YsTheAnt]

I think the major with the large head and the minor in the last few photos are Pheidole , but without measurements and photos of each individual ant we can't narrow it down much.

[antRhu]

So the last three photos are all of the same ant. I had come to the conclusion that ant#1 was a Solenopsis sp. and I had just assumed at the beginning that the two diferent ants were Pheidole sp. because they seemed to be ignoring each other around the nest.

 

Do you think that both ants are of the same species?

 

here is ant #2 next to a ruler marked with mm increments. I'm afraid ant#1 is locked together with another example of ant#2 and I can't get photos of the same standard as I have been

 

 

I wasn't aware Pheidole sp. were capable of stinging Solenopsis to death, or alternatively, that Pheidole sp. minors would sting the majors to death if in the same test tube. As I said above I'm completely new to this though..any and all info gratefully received!

 

cheers

[Manitobant]

The ant with 3 photos taken of it might be wasmannia auropunctata.

[antRhu]

The ant with 3 photos taken of it might be wasmannia auropunctata.

 

Thankyou!

 

I hope it is (so that this solves a mystery) but I also hope it isn't (don't want it to have invaded into the jungle here....although I've read that it's a pretty notorious tramp that is capable of taking out RIFA)

 

any other takers?

[YsTheAnt]

The ant with 3 photos taken of it might be wasmannia auropunctata.

Thankyou!

I hope it is (so that this solves a mystery) but I also hope it isn't (don't want it to have invaded into the jungle here....although I've read that it's a pretty notorious tramp that is capable of taking out RIFA)

any other takers?

Highly doubtful that this is indeed W. auropunctata. They are much hairier than the ant shown in your pictures, and much more compact as well. They also have very prominent spines near their peitole node, and the ant pictured has one much smaller.

I stand by the bigger ant being Solenopsis sp. and the smaller some sort of Pheidole.

Edited by YsTheAnt, January 15 2019 - 8:33 PM.

[antRhu]

 

 

The ant with 3 photos taken of it might be wasmannia auropunctata.

Thankyou!

I hope it is (so that this solves a mystery) but I also hope it isn't (don't want it to have invaded into the jungle here....although I've read that it's a pretty notorious tramp that is capable of taking out RIFA)

any other takers?

Highly doubtful that this is indeed W. auropunctata. They are much hairier than the ant shown in your pictures, and much more compact as well. They also have very prominent spines near their peitole node, and the ant pictured has one much smaller.

I stand by the bigger ant being Solenopsis sp. and the smaller some sort of Pheidole.

 

 

Thankyou!! 

 

I've gone back over the Pheidole species .. I think it could be P. flavens, which would make sense, Antwiki says it's one of the most common in my part of the world.

 

Really appreciate your help!