2467 replies to this topic

[Nexus]

Thanks for this report ! I didn't know there were so many species back in the desert...

Could you send one of your Dolopomyrmex pilatus to France ?

[Gregory2455]

Did anyone find anything from the recent storm? Has anyone encountered Veromessor locally? Or are they all out in the desert?

No. The rain did not even make it over the mountains to the desert.

[Foogoo]

What's everyone got planned for this coming week/weekend? Without any rain or significant weather changes, it seems like most of the catches lately have been random wandering queens.

[PTAntFan]

I've got to get my butt out of bed earlier to catch a wanderer like that.  As I recall they only do that in the early hours after sunrise, right?

[dspdrew]

They can be wandering at any time, It just depends if and when they had a mating flight.

[dspdrew]

It looks like Wednesday will be the first day nighttime temperatures will finally reach the average again before dropping back down slightly. Daytime temps will jump up quite a bit that day too. Looks like it will be just below 70 degrees when it gets dark so I'll probably go black lighting at one of my local spots.

[PTAntFan]

Is there a good thread here on black lighting?  How to, equipment, separating bugs you don't want, etc.  It was 86 here yesterday and I am sure it cooled off fast but was maybe warmer than avg last night.  Mid to high 60s after sundown tonight.  70s by Wednesday.

[dspdrew]

I was reading something wrong. It actually will be just a little bit above average in most places this week.

[Foogoo]

Is there a good thread here on black lighting?  How to, equipment, separating bugs you don't want, etc.  It was 86 here yesterday and I am sure it cooled off fast but was maybe warmer than avg last night.  Mid to high 60s after sundown tonight.  70s by Wednesday.

Try this thread: http://www.formicult...n-ants/?hl=trap

 

I think I included pictures in that thread of what I came up with but haven't had time to do a write up. I haven't used it myself since there aren't any close by areas, but you are welcome to give it a try.

[PTAntFan]

Cool stuff, thanks!  Your trap looks awesome. 

[dspdrew]

Here's the thread I created for my project. I included some information about black light traps in here as well as my own design.

 

http://www.formicult...rap-diy-design/

[dspdrew]

Forecast temps have gone up just slightly, so it's looking good for mating flights in Southern California tomorrow. Looks like they are predicting 70F at 8:00 pm for Trabuco Canyon.

[Foogoo]

I think instead this weekend I'm going to take a trip out to Mormon Rocks as a day trip for ants and geology. Looks like you found most of the Myrmecocystus by founding chambers correct?

[dspdrew]

Yes, but those normally don't fly unless it rains, so if you manage to find a founding chamber now, it has probably been there a long time, and I highly doubt you will dig anything out of it.

[dspdrew]

Well the forecast temps at 8:00 pm just dropped five freakin' degrees. Now I'm deciding if I even want to go. The temperature there at the moment is almost in the 30's--waaaaay colder than was forcast also. I don't know what's going on around here. I even had to get my heater back out of the closet the other day.

[Foogoo]

Yes, but those normally don't fly unless it rains, so if you manage to find a founding chamber now, it has probably been there a long time, and I highly doubt you will dig anything out of it.

 

That's what I'm figuring so I'm not going with high expectations, but it doesn't look like any other area will have any higher probabily. Hopefully I'll at least see some interesting colonies.

Well the forecast temps at 8:00 pm just dropped five freakin' degrees. Now I'm deciding if I even want to go. The temperature there at the moment is almost in the 30's--waaaaay colder than was forcast also. I don't know what's going on around here. I even had to get my heater back out of the closet the other day.

That's weird, I've been sleeping with the window open the last few weeks because it's been relatively warm at night.

[dspdrew]

 

Yes, but those normally don't fly unless it rains, so if you manage to find a founding chamber now, it has probably been there a long time, and I highly doubt you will dig anything out of it.

 

That's what I'm figuring so I'm not going with high expectations, but it doesn't look like any other area will have any higher probabily. Hopefully I'll at least see some interesting colonies.

 

Well ants fly in the mountains when it doesn't rain. Usually during a heatwave.

[dspdrew]

So I decided to go and what a waste of time it was. There were three moths, two beetles, 4 mosquitoes and one weird round thing on my black light. I took the moths because I decided I'm going to start taking moths to use as ant food every time I go black lighting now. I also got myself a piece of rotted wood I'm going to use for a little wood formicarium for my Liometopum occidentale colony... or what I hope will be a colony.

[Foogoo]

Mormon Rocks was great, the weather was much milder than I expected up there. There's one stretch (and seemed like only that one stretch) of trail that had all sorts of ants, I believe I saw Pogonomyrmex, Limotopum, Solenopsis, and Myrmecocystus, possibly a few Camponotus nests too. Then there was a section with either a ton or one large Myrmecocystus (I think) nests/nest.

 

The Solenopsis nest had alates poking their heads out. I caught two wanderers there (I'm guessing Limotopum or Myrmecocystus) and a few more down Cajon Rd. next to a creek. There was definitely a flight somewhere as some of them fell out of the sky along with a few drones, which are now in the venus flytrap. Met some interesting people along the way including gold panners and a biker chugging a 40 .

[Wamdar]

Oooo!! Jelly. I'm going to go explore tomorrow!