2467 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

I dug into a few P. californicus nests, and did not find a single alate, so maybe we still have a month or so before they fly. I know last year they started flying at the very end of May out in Palmdale.

I've been seeing a lot of alates either poking out of nests or in nests I uncovered but no evidence of flights or founding chambers. I wonder if they're waiting until summer actually rolls around, it seems from your map that many were caught in the August-Sept timeframe.

 

u guys out west are have loads of fun exploreing, here in lubbock there's squat! lol

 

 even worse i can't drive have to get/try to get my mommy 2 take me places when she's feeling up to it.... lol

You've got to look harder! Looks like Lubbock has a good number of parks/lakes/river too which would be ideal places to look. Where I am, there are dirt lots and parks with nothing, not even Argentines, then a random sidewalk with all sorts of nests. And become friends with public transportation and people with cars. 

[dspdrew]

 

I dug into a few P. californicus nests, and did not find a single alate, so maybe we still have a month or so before they fly. I know last year they started flying at the very end of May out in Palmdale.

I've been seeing a lot of alates either poking out of nests or in nests I uncovered but no evidence of flights or founding chambers. I wonder if they're waiting until summer actually rolls around, it seems from your map that many were caught in the August-Sept timeframe

 

It wouldn't be Pogonomyrmex californicus flying at that time. Most of their mating flights that I have record of took place in June.

[AntsTexas]

lol hehe...  thanks.... did some checking there's a park near me yippie!!

[PTAntFan]

What's on tap for this weekend, Drew?

[dspdrew]

Lots of work on my projects. Its WAY too cold for any anting. Next weekend looks like a possibility though.

[dspdrew]

Here's some pictures and video of the Pogonomyrmex magnacanthus colonies I saw in Glamis. These are very small and look sort of like P. californicus nanitics, only with a slightly more orange colored gaster. They also have unusually large eyes for Pogonomyrmex. It was very hard to find their nests, possibly because of the rain storm that went through the day before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To my surprise, that evening I saw what looked like a lone P. californicus worker, only without the black gaster, when I quickly realized it was a P. magnacanthus queen. Like I said earlier, I ended up finding four of them like this, and another five in founding chambers. As far as I know, these should be semi-claustral, so it's possible the four I found wandering around were just out foraging. I usually notice other species of Pogonomyrmex queens foraging in the evening and night.

 

I found this Myrmecocystus sp. worker running around in the sand dunes of Ocotillo Wells. I've never seen one this color before. It was light orange, with a solid black gaster.

 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Looks like the end of this next week should be good for some black lighting in the hills and mountains. Unfortunately it's a very slow warm up, which I HATE. The problem is you have to guess which day the ants will decide is warm enough. When it jumps way up in one day, it's pretty obvious which day they'll fly. Sometimes some species will fly multiple days, but others just have one big flight and they're done. Anybody who wants fire ants of a few species should be able to get them with a black light most any of these warm days coming up. Might find a few Pheidole queens as well.

[dspdrew]

They're forecasting very warm temperatures in the high elevation mountains later this week, even warmer in the evening and early night than the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains in some areas. At this point, I'm thinking of checking out Mt. Baldy Thursday and maybe Angelus Oaks on Friday.

[dspdrew]

Thursday turned out pretty good. We didn't see any major mating flights, but we did find a few random queens. I met up with kellakk and Wamdar a couple hours before it got dark.

 

While wandering around by the creek, Wamdar found himself a little Tapinoma sessile colony, or at least part of one with a few queens. After that, I came across a founding chamber in a tiny patch of dirt--not something you see a lot around there because of the terrain. Well I got pretty lucky, because I actually dug a queen out of it, and it was a Myrmecocystus queen. After keying it out later, I found out it's a Myrmecocystus mimicus queen. That's the first time I've ever found that species, and I never thought it would be up there. It still has its wings, which I thought was weird considering it was in a founding chamber. Hopefully it's fertile.

 

Later, after it got dark, we started finding more random queens. I first found a Camponotus vicinus queen which I gave to Wamdar. Later I found one or two Liometopum occidentale queens, and a Solenopsis xyloni queen, which I gave to Wamdar also. I found another Camponotus vicinus queen, which I kept for myself, and what turned out to be a Camponotus hyatti queen, which I kept as well. kellakk found a few Liometopum occidentale queens and a whole bunch of different beetles, which he collects a lot of.

 

We didn't find any ants on our black lights, but found plenty dampwood termites, of which kellakk and I kept a few of. We also found centipedes and plenty of scorpions of a few different species. I found a nice gravid scorpion of a species I don't have yet. I kept that and a centipede since my last centipede ended up dying. The last cool thing we found was some strange beetle larva that looked like a big shiny banded worm. kellakk has it, and I hope he posts some pictures of it.

 

Here are some pictures of the Myrmecocystus mimicus and the Camponotus hyatti queens.

 

Myrmecocystus mimicus

 

 

 

 

Camponotus hyatti - These are of the Myrmentoma subgenus, which are smaller species of Camponotus.

 

[dspdrew]

Tonight I think I'll be going to Angelus Oaks. So far, I don't think anyone else is going, so I'll be wandering around the forest in the dark by myself, so wish me luck.

[Foogoo]

Tonight I think I'll be going to Angelus Oaks. So far, I don't think anyone else is going, so I'll be wandering around the forest in the dark by myself, so wish me luck.

Let us know how it goes, and I'd appreciate any location notes! I'm heading up there in two weeks as a faux vacation/ant hunting.

[Anhzor]

P californicus (bi color) fly in march, as oppose to concolorous which fly in late may/early june.

[dspdrew]

They both fly the same time. I've never seen any P. californicus fly in March. Take for instance this part of the mating flight database.

Pogonomyrmex californicus 2010 6 6           North America USA CA Apple Valley       
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2010 6 16          North America USA CA Apple Valley        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2011 7 3           North America USA CA Apple Valley        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2013 6 11          North America USA CA Costa Mesa      
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 5 25 12:00 PM North America USA CA Riverside    hot
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 5 26 4:00 PM  North America USA CA Palmdale     hot, recent rain
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 6 19 day      North America USA CA Riverside        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 7 5  8:00 AM  North America USA CA Phelan 
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2015 4 28 12:00 PM North America USA CA Riverside    hot, windy, recent rain
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2015 5 12          North America USA CA Simi Valley  recent rain

[Vendayn]

Out in the Salton Sea (southeast of Palm Springs) I found a Pogonomyrmex californicus queen in first week of January.

 

It was 60 degrees, and very windy and the wind made it feel more like in the 40s.

 

The sun came out for a brief minute and warmed it up to high 60s and the wind stopped during that time, and found one lone P. californicus queen running up the road. Got my best Pogonomyrmex colony from her.

 

No idea if the queen flew, or maybe she came from a failed colony much earlier in the previous year...but, it was a bit strange. There weren't any other queens around, just her.

[dspdrew]

Angelus Oaks was awesome. I found tons of Myrmecocystus testaceus queens actively digging their founding chambers. I also found a bunch of Camponotus vicinus queens, both all-black, and red-and-black. I found a few Camponotus laevigatus, which was my main reason for going. Now as I'm going through all of these, I think I might have also found one Camponotus quercicola queen. I've always wanted one of them as well. C. laevigatus and C. quercicola are really the only two large wood-nesting Camponotus you seem to find around Southern California.

 

If anyone wants some Myrmecocystus testaceus, there are tons of founding chambers along Forest Rd 1N86 right off of Hwy 38. You should still be able to dig them up for the next week.

 

Edit: I definitely did find one C. quercicola queen.

 

[Foogoo]

Angelus Oaks was awesome. I found tons of Myrmecocystus testaceus queens actively digging their founding chambers. I also found a bunch of Camponotus vicinus queens, both all-black, and red-and-black. I found a few Camponotus laevigatus, which was my main reason for going. Now as I'm going through all of these, I think I might have also found one Camponotus quercicola queen. I've always wanted one of them as well. C. laevigatus and C. quercicola are really the only two wood-nesting Camponotus you seem to find around Southern California.

 

If anyone wants some Myrmecocystus testaceus, there are tons of founding chambers along Forest Rd 1N86 right off of Hwy 38. You should still be able to dig them up for the next week.

Did you find the Camponotus wandering at night as you did the other ones? Also off the highway? Hopefully they'll still be around in two weeks .

[dspdrew]

I found all of these after dark except for some of the black C. vicinus, which I found under small rotted logs and rocks. I found a couple of the Camponotus at the same place I was finding the Myrmecocystus, but most of them I found out in the woods, especially the C. laevigatus. Those I have only found on very large downed pine trees, which is also usually the only place they nest.

[Anhzor]

 

They both fly the same time. I've never seen any P. californicus fly in March. Take for instance this part of the mating flight database.

Pogonomyrmex californicus 2010 6 6           North America USA CA Apple Valley       
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2010 6 16          North America USA CA Apple Valley        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2011 7 3           North America USA CA Apple Valley        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2013 6 11          North America USA CA Costa Mesa      
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 5 25 12:00 PM North America USA CA Riverside    hot
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 5 26 4:00 PM  North America USA CA Palmdale     hot, recent rain
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 6 19 day      North America USA CA Riverside        
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2014 7 5  8:00 AM  North America USA CA Phelan 
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2015 4 28 12:00 PM North America USA CA Riverside    hot, windy, recent rain
Pogonomyrmex californicus 2015 5 12          North America USA CA Simi Valley  recent rain

 

i believe i told you about this, where i found them mating on top of a basalt done in joshua tree during march

Edited by dspdrew, June 1 2015 - 6:26 AM.
Fixed quote formatting

[dspdrew]

Do you have an exact location and date for that?

[Tpro4]

Drew, you going anting this summer, i wanna tag along with my family if possible...