34 replies to this topic

[Ants4fun]

Cool! You should make a journal for them.

[dspdrew]

Nice catch. I sure would like to know the genus.

[antsinmypants]

Nice catch. I sure would like to know the genus.

 

 

Thanks, Drew. I've pretty much completed my anting goals for this spring today with another 22 dealates caught across the street from Woodward park. At this point, the project has changed from a mere hobbyist's selfish point of view to more of rescue operation. These 56 dealates (17 + 17 + 22 = 52) were doomed to an early death because they were on development land. Unless the real estate market crashes, the colonies that produced these alates will be gone by next year. And so this morning I released 13 more dealates into my backyard (don't tell the Mrs.). Besides, why go anting when I can just step outside my house in several years to see there gorgeous, red critters crawling all over the place.

 

Based on my observations and a Google-sponsored video on the desert Harvester ant, I believe these Pogonomyrmex dealates often establish nests very close to the mother nest. For the species I have been catching, it was as close as within 5 feet of the parent nest. Having said that, I realize that this is not always case.

 

While off-topic, yesterday I was surprised to find that the purple heartleaf milkweed seeds that I planted several weeks ago had actually germinated. Having once lived in LA, I had two milkweed plants that yielded many Monarch butterflies, including several newly-born that I held in my hands. Please consider planting native milkweed plants in your backyard. Save our Monarch butterflies. 

 

I have included 3 close-ups, if you can call them that, of some of the queens I caught today. I used an Amazon clip-on macro lens to take the pictures. I guess I need a dissecting scope and more time and effort to learn how to take pictures of ants. A lot of the photos posted on this forum are incredible. 

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 

Edited by antsinmypants, March 25 2015 - 5:22 AM.

[Jonathan21700]

Beautiful queens!

[antsinmypants]

Well, here's an interesting website. I wish I had a valid import license. Geez, if anting could be so easy as point-&-click with a credit card on hand......But anting and raising a colony from scratch is what it's all about. No sport otherwise. Hmmm, you can even buy the fungus for Acromyrmex here.

Edited by antsinmypants, March 17 2015 - 7:32 AM.

[dspdrew]

I wonder if these might be P. brevispinosus.

[LAnt]

Antsinmypants these are for sure semi claustral right?

[Miles]

Antsinmypants these are for sure semi claustral right?

If they are in the P. californicus group, then yes.

[antsinmypants]

Antsinmypants these are for sure semi claustral right?

Sorry to take so long to respond, LAnt. You know how life gets in the way of living....

If you define claustral as a queen digging a nest over a period of a few days and never seeing the light of day after that time, then I suspect these are semi-claustral. But I will go anting this morning, a week after these nests were first discovered by me (they were probably established a week before I discovered them), and if I see a bunch of queens foraging or digging their nests, then I guess we are talking semi-claustral. 

[antsinmypants]

This morning I caught 25 more queens (no, I am not kidding you). Half of them were either foraging or digging up their nests. The other half I was fortunate enough to be able to dig them up from just beneath the topsoil. I think the latter group was close to the surface to get the heat from the morning sun. They were out in 2 - 3 scoops. I had to go to both mother lodes to find them though, as I think I may have 'saved' most of the queens already that are on the developer's land. 

Edited by antsinmypants, March 25 2015 - 5:21 AM.

[antsinmypants]

OMG. I am so super stoked now. Remember those Pogonomyrmex dealates I let loose in my backyard over the weekend? This is what I saw this afternoon. No more anting for me, they come anting to me. Just don't tell the Mrs. what I did.

Attached Images

• 

[dspdrew]

  Nice!

[Foogoo]

I didn't quite make it to Woodward Park yesterday b/c fifteen feet from where I stepped out of my car I came across a Pogonomyrmex dealate. Good 'ole Dixie cups from church helped me catch all but one dealate: 17 yesterday and another 17 today. I caught sooooo many that I decided to relocate seven of the smallest dealates to my backyard. After this coming week I figure I should have enough queens to ensure at least one successful future colony, especially since I am adopting some of Retroman's techniques. Using 4 tackle boxes partitioned into 12 units, with fine sand at the base, a cotton ball soaked in water sitting in a plastic medicine cup to provide humidity to the occupants, and a heating cable have created my own version of the Park Apartments, a cruddy place I stayed at when I was flat broke during my post-graduate training.   

Each apartment unit comes with it's own supply of poppy and black nyjer seeds, as well the complimentary Sunday all-you-eat-in-5-minute brunch of All Living Things' Freeze Dried Medley For Bearded Dragons (crickets, grasshoppers, and mealworms). The occasional 'rainfall' soaks safely into the sand so the queens have a cool, refreshing drink without the risk of drowning. Wi-fi is free but you have to supply your own laptop. Heck, I'm going to let my house go into foreclosure and move into this place instead. 

They're calm in the bead containers? The few of mine I tried in a similar setup just incessantly keep trying to climb up the walls.

[Subverted]

They're calm in the bead containers? The few of mine I tried in a similar setup just incessantly keep trying to climb up the walls.

 

I tried giving some queens a small outworld attached to their founding setups. It seems to have calmed them down a bit but isn't a perfect solution.

[antsinmypants]

They do settle down in the tackle boxes much faster than entombing them in a tiny test tube. The brown paper towel shreds seem to help a lot along with the sand down under their legs. The only thing about the set-up is I have to do somewhat of a 'hard transfer' to move them into a more hospitable, formal formicarium set-up. But I choose my winners relatively early on based on the numbers of eggs, larvae, pupae and nanitics they have so there's not a whole lot to move. I also tend to choose more robust or beefier looking queens rather than their smaller sister queens. I use a small plastic spoon to coax the queens into climbing onto it, and then perform the transfer that way. The end of a water-moistened BBQ stick works like a charm to pick up the eggs, larvae and pupae.