2467 replies to this topic

[StopSpazzing]

I live in the riverside area, I was wondering if honeypot ants live where I am. Also, do you think I could find them today, we had a decent thunderstorm, one more coming up, and around 100 degrees.

http://www.formicult...nt-mating-chartand there are many honeypot ants, you need to be more specific. Also this question has been answered most likely, instead of high jacking this thread, go use forum search. If you find nothing, THEN post a topic in appropriate forum.

Edited by StopSpazzing, August 31 2017 - 3:07 PM.

[AntsCalifornia]

Weathers crazy over here. Flash flood warnings went out. It will stop right at sunset, leaving me to black light, the only question now is do honeypots live where I am. There's a mountain range separating us from mojave and joshua tree. so does that mean that I can't get a honeypot, or are they on this side of the mountains too?

[AntsCalifornia]

Honeypot ants I'm asking about are the navajo and the mexicanus for their yellow color

[dspdrew]

Edit: noon... after a several hours driving about NE of Barstow it seems that while many areas received rain, it was not a "soaker". No aleates flying that I could find. Will keep looking.

 

Some areas did get quite a bit of rain earlier, but most of the larger species aren't going to fly until it starts to dry out a bit. I highly doubt anything will fly tonight, and if those areas are wet enough, or it's cloudy in tomorrow morning they probably won't fly then either. The nocturnal fliers would most likely fly tomorrow night, and if it's sunny the diurnal would probably fly Saturday morning. I'll be heading up there Saturday to check out a few areas that got decent amounts of rain.

 

 

Honeypot ants I'm asking about are the navajo and the mexicanus for their yellow color

 

Probably not going to find M. navajo or M. mexicanus in the Riverside area. Those are desert species. There are plenty M. mimicus and M. testaceus, but I'm pretty sure they only fly in early Spring around there. BTW, like the two you mentioned, M. testaceus are also light yellow and nocturnal. The queens of that species are brown though.

[Pleming]

dspdrew what areas are you going to visit Saturday?

[dspdrew]

Lake Los Angeles, Hi Vista, El Mirage, Adelanto, La Delta, Apple Valley, and Lucerne Valley.

[Pleming]

Wow, that's quite the road trip. Will you be updating on the forum if you find anything? I would love to go catch some queens!

[dspdrew]

Of course.

[OniMonkey]

Hi Drew, I'm thinking about heading up there also this weekend. Good luck on the road trip!

[miwu]

Just wanted to share that mexicanus and navajo both flew last night around Lucerne Valley. I was going to hit up multiple locations that Drew also mentioned but my first stop kept me busy. When I arrived, I saw a couple queens walking around and some pretty new founding chambers. I didn't have much time to collect so I grabbed a few queens that popped out while digging and left.

[AntsCalifornia]

I'm going out this weekend hopefully too. Miwu said that mexicanus and navajo flew last night, does that mean that's it for the navajo and mexicanus, because those ants are my favorite and I'll be really disappointed if I missed them. I guess I can still dig them. How long after flights can you dig them up?

[AntsCalifornia]

I'm going to try going there today around 6:00 if I can, is that to late to dig, because mexicanus is my dream ant colony.

Also, do you have pictures of what their founding chambers look like so I can identify them.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, September 1 2017 - 7:03 AM.

[Pleming]

AntsCalifornia I'm thinking of heading up tonight too.

 

Does anyone know if any other species flew anywhere else? 

 

I know its kind of late for Camponotus but I love them.

[AntsCalifornia]

Nice, the forum is finally back. I had a question about the M. testaceus, how big are they. Are they small or big, and how big are the repletes. I've been doing research and can't find much, but their repletes look small as the false honeypot ants. I wasn't able to go anting after the storm. Didn't get my myrmecocystus mexicanus like I had hoped. Thinking about selling the many queens I have and buying a M. mexicanus queen.

[AntsCalifornia]

I've been new to anting. I started only 4 months ago. I did, however, manage to catch over 50 queens. Half of them are the same type and small though. I'm planning on getting much more interesting queens next year as well as more. I want myrmecocystus, acromyrmex, and Pheidole most of all. I hope to make next year a great year for anting. My first colony now has huge larva, I'm expecting the workers any day now! I can't wait!

Edited by AntsCalifornia, September 6 2017 - 4:00 PM.

[Kujawaorchids]

For all you CA people, looks like you guys are getting some good rain right now. Radar

[nurbs]

For all you CA people, looks like you guys are getting some good rain right now. Radar

 

Yes

[Pleming]

Anyone in socal going anting?

[Zegorzalek]

I will be out NE of Barstow area tomorrow. We got some heavy rain this afternoon with a good sized cell dropping heavy rain for about 40 minutes this afternoon. Nests near the house were furiously digging out this afternoon. Going to hit several desert areas tomorrow and Sunday to see what I can find.. got a lot of Pogomyrmex californicus ? nests out here... both solid red and bicolor, as well as a lot of veromessor (pergandi?). Time will tell!

[dspdrew]

P. californicus and V. pergandei fly very early in the year, so you won't find any of those queens right now.

 

I'm planning on going to the Desert Center area to look for Acromyrmex and Myrmecocystus, M. mendax in particular. I'm also hoping Palm Desert get's some rain so I can get some Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus this year. These are all yet to fly still, and will fly this late.