2467 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

Thanks for the tip, Drew. I only had 1.5 hours out there this morning but managed to dig up 2 C. vicinus, 10 Myrmecocystus, and a pair of mystery ants (Solenopsis?) in the first 100 yds or so of the road. Your weather/flight predictions are getting frighteningly accurate 

[asp762]

Damn, I went anting in Canyon Country (Placerita Canyon) and came up with nothing.  

 

Maybe I need to just go to the sure thing (aka wherever DspDrew finds 'em).  But it's a two hour drive...

[PTAntFan]

Couldn't go yesterday, but thinking of heading out tonight.  If I get there about 7:45pm, think they'll be out 'renovating' their nests or should I prep for breaking into logs?  I'm only interested in the C. vicinus and laevigatus.

[PTAntFan]

Damn traffic deterring me.  Should be 1:40, but says over 2hrs.  MF!

[dspdrew]

Thanks for the tip, Drew. I only had 1.5 hours out there this morning but managed to dig up 2 C. vicinus, 10 Myrmecocystus, and a pair of mystery ants (Solenopsis?) in the first 100 yds or so of the road. Your weather/flight predictions are getting frighteningly accurate 

 

I was going to mention you might be able to dig up some C. vicinus, but I have never actually done that before, so that's pretty cool. I really want to see these mystery queens you dug up. I've never even seen Solenopsis up there, so it might be some other myrmecine I've never found before.

 

 

Couldn't go yesterday, but thinking of heading out tonight.  If I get there about 7:45pm, think they'll be out 'renovating' their nests or should I prep for breaking into logs?  I'm only interested in the C. vicinus and laevigatus.

 

I know it's probably too late to reply now, but breaking into logs would probably only be necessary for finding C. laevigatus, although I'm not sure how much you're going to get vs. how much damage you'll do. The best way is to just wait until it gets dark, when they all start working on their nests.

 

These Camponotus laevigatus are pretty much only found on very large logs. I have never even seen a queen anywhere but on one of those logs. I assume they don't even land anywhere but on a log like that. What I really want to know, is how to find Camponotus quercicola. I found one last year mixed in with all the C. laevigatus I found on those logs, but that was probably just a fluke. They strictly nest in living oak trees, so I would think that maybe that is where those queens try to land. I looked around on a few oak trees while I was there, but never found any. Like the giant pine logs and C. laevigatus, almost every oak tree has a colony of C. quercicola living in it already. Maybe some day I'll figure out the secret to catching them too.

[kellakk]

Thanks for the tip, Drew. I only had 1.5 hours out there this morning but managed to dig up 2 C. vicinus, 10 Myrmecocystus, and a pair of mystery ants (Solenopsis?) in the first 100 yds or so of the road. Your weather/flight predictions are getting frighteningly accurate 

 

I wonder if your mystery ants are Aphaenogaster! That would be cool, I don't think any of us in southern California have found queens of that species yet.

[dspdrew]

 

Thanks for the tip, Drew. I only had 1.5 hours out there this morning but managed to dig up 2 C. vicinus, 10 Myrmecocystus, and a pair of mystery ants (Solenopsis?) in the first 100 yds or so of the road. Your weather/flight predictions are getting frighteningly accurate 

 

I wonder if your mystery ants are Aphaenogaster! That would be cool, I don't think any of us in southern California have found queens of that species yet.

 

 

I was wondering if that could be a possibility, but it looks like they don't usually fly until July. I just don't know hardly anything about them, including what kind of founding chambers they would dig, or where they would typically be.

[Foogoo]

My bad, on closer inspection they are workers and not queens, from this ID thread. Still thought it was strange to have two workers living with the Myrmecocystus.

[dspdrew]

Their queens almost look like M. testaceus queens actually haha.

[PTAntFan]

No flights in sight!

[dspdrew]

Yeah, it's hard to believe we aren't getting a single day of warm temps.

[Tpro4]

i found a couple of wandering queens on the ground at my school though so that's a good plus

[dspdrew]

Looks like Thursday might finally be a good day for some black lighting.

[DustyDoes]

How's the anting weather looking now? It's been a few days since that last post. Still thinking about taking the black light out for a night? I'd love to tag along if you end up going.

[dspdrew]

I'll be going to Trabuco Canyon with NightsWebs Friday night.

[dspdrew]

So I decided to go Thursday night, and it was pretty good. When I first pulled up around 8:00 pm, Temnothorax started swarming in the thousands, coating my whole windshield. Thirty minutes later, the flight was over and they were nowhere to be seen, other than a few randoms that showed up on the black light after it got dark.

 

I saw the biggest Camponotus males I have ever seen. They measured over 13mm in length. I also found one alate that I think was the same species. I'm pretty sure these were both the same species as the giant Camponotus that are all over that area. I have always suspected they are C. ocreatus. I've been wanting that species more than any other. I sure hope I get a colony of them.

 

I found another one of the strange parasitic looking Crematogaster queens that always just end up dying.

 

I found an orange parasitic Lasius, which is very strange considering it doesn't snow anywhere within 60 miles of that place.

 

Edit: The giant Camponotus are Camponotus CA-02.

Edited by dspdrew, April 25 2020 - 12:19 AM.

[dspdrew]

Well NightsWebs didn't make it Friday night, but Subverted did. There weren't as many ants flying that night, but we still found some pretty good stuff. We both found more of those Camponotus cf. ocreatus CA-02 alates, which is good because the alate I found the night before died. I got a bunch more of those parasitic looking Crematogaster queens, and another orange parasitic Lasius.
 
Subverted got lucky and also found either Pheidole vistana (one of my other favorites) or Pheidole desertorum. They're almost impossible to tell apart. He also got lucky and found a random Formica moki running around. It's gaster was very small, so I had a feeling it wouldn't survive. I think it's already dead.

[PTAntFan]

Ocreatus pictures please.

[dspdrew]

Ocreatus pictures please.

 

This is my old ID thread for them.

 

http://www.formicult...13/?hl=ocreatus

 

I'll post pictures of the dead alate as soon as I get it pinned up.

[dspdrew]

I think I might go black lighting Friday. That should be the start of another heatwave.