2467 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

I was watching all day for these thunderstorms that could pop up in the desert today, but saw nothing until about two hours ago. Now there are tons of fairly intense thunderstorms all over in the Apple Valley and Lake Los Angeles areas. I'll definitely be going Saturday.

 

[dspdrew]

Absolutely nothing so far. How depressing.

[WeatherAnt]

Nice storms tho!

[Foogoo]

Same at Angelus Oaks. Termites were out in force though, but absolutely no sign of any ant flights. Lots of interesting colonies I don't see locally though: Camponotus, Myrmecocystus, Formica, etc. And Tapinoma and Solenopsis invicta. My UV bucket trap also worked great, caught a ton of everything. Everything except queen ants...

[PTAntFan]

Camponotus at Angeles Oaks, eh?  I'm going to post some pics of the large black ant I found at Fraizer Park a week ago.  It might be Camponotus but I suppose it could be the illusive veromesor you've been wanting.  Not a queen, but I know where they are.

 

Drew was the whole night a wash?  The desert has been funky, I think the changing weather patterns throwing all kinds of things off.

[Foogoo]

Camponotus at Angeles Oaks, eh?  I'm going to post some pics of the large black ant I found at Fraizer Park a week ago.  It might be Camponotus but I suppose it could be the illusive veromesor you've been wanting.  Not a queen, but I know where they are.

I'll post an ID thread later tonight but I'm fairly sure they were Camponotus. Quite a few colonies too, really came out to forage and hunt termites after dark. Formica nests were almost everywhere you looked. Weird was not a single Pogonomyrmex anywhere, which seem to be everywhere in the basin and valley. Not sure if this has been pointed out elsewhere but Myrmecocystus nests were like a cone going into the ground with a large (~1 inch) opening, quite noticeable.

[dspdrew]

Nice storms tho!

 

I'm not too sure about that. I keep seeing reasons to believe that not as much rain fell in those areas of orange and red as I would have normally expected. Does that happen?

 

 

Drew was the whole night a wash?  The desert has been funky, I think the changing weather patterns throwing all kinds of things off.

 

Pretty much. I found a total of one moth, one small wasp, and one Dorymyrmex alate on my black light. The Dory ended up in my garden out front. I did however dig up four Pogonomyrmex californicus (concolourous) at Mormon Rocks on my way home. I could have done that at the park five minutes from my house.

 

As for the desert... The monsoon season doesn't really start until July, and when it does there WILL be lots of ants flying. This time however, I wasn't expecting any of those ants to fly, but thought for sure something would fly, perhaps some species of queens I haven't collected yet. At this point I don't really know for sure if it was due to the time of year, or the weather, as it was very windy, and I don't think much is going to fly in wind like that. The wind also dried the ground out very quickly. There were areas that had big puddles with very dry dirt all around.

 

 

Weird was not a single Pogo anywhere, which seem to be everywhere in the basin and valley.

 

There are Pogonomyrmex montanus way up in the mountains; you just have to find them. These are only found in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains BTW.

[WeatherAnt]

 

Nice storms tho!

 

I'm not too sure about that. I keep seeing reasons to believe that not as much rain fell in those areas of orange and red as I would have normally expected. Does that happen?

 

Oh yeah, all the time. Weather Radar beams are tilted at an angle, typically 0.5 degrees at minimum. So, the farther away from the radar you are, the higher into the atmosphere your radar beam will be intercepting the storm. If you're far enough away, your radar may pick up falling precipitation ... but further below, it might be evaporating before reaching the ground. 

 

So, in short ... the farther you are from the radar itself the more likely you are to see "false returns" in the sense that there is precip above you that the radar sees but not at the ground. Or, less than you would expect at the ground.

 

Mountains can also cause the effect, regardless of distance. The lower beams are blocked whereas the higher beams make it over the mountain. And, same story here ... might sense precip ... might not be reaching the ground. 

 

 

Image source: http://blog.memphisw...ving-urban.html

Edited by WeatherAnt, June 14 2015 - 6:41 PM.

[dspdrew]

Ah, makes sense. Thanks, I'll remember that.

[dspdrew]

Looks like the low temps by Friday should be pretty warm. The canyons around here should only get down to 66 F according to wunderground.com. That will be a good day for some black lighting.

[dspdrew]

Ruined yet again. What was going to be 75 degrees at 9:00 PM is now in the 60's. It's in the 90's during the day, and still dropping all the way into the low 50's at night. I don't understand what is going on. Looking at the weather history, last year there was a 10 degree difference between the high and low temps, while this year it's a 35 degree difference. No matter how hot it gets during the day, it still remains just as cold at night. It's petty much impossible to get a night with temps above 70 around here.

[PTAntFan]

Strange. Can anyone explain how this aspect of weather functions? I always thought warm days meant warm nights for the most part and 30+ degree temperature changes came from fronts or other specific weather patterns.

[nurbs]

I am down for a monsoon gathering. Think my workload will ease up in the summer.

[Ants4fun]

Strange. Can anyone explain how this aspect of weather functions? I always thought warm days meant warm nights for the most part and 30+ degree temperature changes came from fronts or other specific weather patterns.

Where is WeatherAnt when we need him?

[cpman]

Strange. Can anyone explain how this aspect of weather functions? I always thought warm days meant warm nights for the most part and 30+ degree temperature changes came from fronts or other specific weather patterns.

In a lot of arid areas, there is a massive difference between day and night temperatures. I'm not sure why, but I've been places where it can be over 90 in the day and in the high 30s at night without fronts and the like.

Edited by cpman, June 22 2015 - 9:56 AM.

[dspdrew]

 

Strange. Can anyone explain how this aspect of weather functions? I always thought warm days meant warm nights for the most part and 30+ degree temperature changes came from fronts or other specific weather patterns.

Where is WeatherAnt when we need him?

 

 

He already tried to explain it to me. I gave up trying to understand it.

[Foogoo]

Any plans (anyone) to go blacklighting this weekend? Looks like we're in for a nice long stretch of hot and dry, I don't imagine having much daytime anting luck.

[dspdrew]

Normally this weather pattern is not a good one for black lighting. I even went Friday, and sure enough, I didn't find hardly anything. We need drastic weather changes. It has been fairly hot for about two weeks now, and will continue that way for another week at least. If it would cool off for a little while and then jump back up, preferably a little hotter than it's been (something quite drastic), then I would expect to see more activity. Rain or a jump in humidity could also trigger something. One of the main things also is temps above 70 F after dark, which we have not had much of for some reason. There has been quite a swing from high to low for the last month.

 

Everything I'm saying is based on my few years of experience doing this, so it's mainly relevant to the places I go anting, which should be the same for you. I know the guys up in Northern California pretty much agree with my analysis.

 

One species that should be flying now is Veromessor andrei. According to David Gaban from up north, they've been flying early in the morning as soon as the sun comes up, and he's been finding dealates wandering around in the evening. That is probably the only reason I would go anting for now. I reallllllly want some of those.

[Foogoo]

Interesting and ditto, Veromessor is on my hit list. Do you have them in your area or are you heading to the desert? 

[PTAntFan]

Also want Veromessor. I could do some scouting during the week too.