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Southern California Anting


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#1321 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 21 2019 - 5:52 PM

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What’s the best spot you guys recommend that’s near Santa Clarita? Because I’ve got to catch some queens.


I hit up several spots last night, from 7pm-1am, based on screenshots taken from the doppler a week before. The entire desert is pretty much soaked. Every spot had M. tenuisnodis, one spot (South of the Joshua Tree entrance) I found one M. mimicus and another south of Whitewater found two black Pheidole. There were a few digs where I dug up two M. tenuisnodis together.

Think I could go tomorrow to Victorville tomorrow and dig some up still?


Both of you guys are asking about high desert areas. It's still way too cold up there for anything to fly. The part of the desert where we are finding queens is the low desert where it's a lot warmer.

#1322 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 21 2019 - 5:57 PM

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P4AVTYxl.jpg

 

I'm pretty sure that is Pheidole barbata. I can't believe they were flying this early too.


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#1323 Offline CptFame - Posted January 22 2019 - 6:48 PM

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So where near ventura is a good place to catch some queens
So where near ventura is a good place to catch some queens

#1324 Offline B_rad0806 - Posted January 23 2019 - 4:31 PM

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So where near ventura is a good place to catch some queens
So where near ventura is a good place to catch some queens


Oops
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#1325 Offline anttics - Posted January 25 2019 - 11:58 PM

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62 degrees at 11pm at my spot in Simi Valley. I think camponotus might fly. Last year while everyone got camps Simi valley camp species alreadt flew. Its a micro climate. I'm sure today it was around 70 at 8pm.

There are huge camp salsabeans. I got freak out by a super major worker last year. Who was the fastes running ant i have seen. There are 3 other camps species none of these camps need fridges for hibernation. There are veromessor andrei black color. I will go tomorrow to check it out.

Edited by anttics, January 26 2019 - 12:01 AM.


#1326 Offline gcsnelling - Posted January 26 2019 - 5:18 AM

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P4AVTYxl.jpgo

 

I'm pretty sure that is Pheidole barbata. I can't believe they were flying this early too.

 

 

Yah a bit early for that species, but they do generally fly early.



#1327 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 27 2019 - 9:09 AM

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I drove up to the Ortega Oaks Candy Store yesterday and looked around on that short popular trail across the street where there are a large amount of Myrmecocystus wheeleri colonies. I didn't find any founding chambers anywhere. I didn't really expect to find anything, but just wanted to check to be sure. When I found the queen two years ago, it was early March.



#1328 Offline T.C. - Posted January 27 2019 - 11:47 AM

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Zeiss and I went all the way up to Nipton, CA and ended up finding some Myrmecocystus queens that were flying during the day. They looked like M. mimicus, but they might have been more than one species. These were flying right along Nipton Road in a sort of dry lake bed where all the water in the area accumulates during storms, so it was very muddy there.
 
We drove back down the 15 for a few minutes to Bailey Road where I found one Myrmecocystus mexicanus queen and a few more of what looked like M. mimicus.
 
At one point we were driving on the Hwy 95 and went through a really intense storm that I thought was about to wash us off the road once the flash floods hit. Driving through some of the washes almost stopped my truck, but we made it through. There was almost nobody behind us after that so I think they all got stopped. Then CHP passed us heading to the spot with their lights on. Maybe someone in a little car was stupid enough to try to make it through the deepest wash.
 
That was pretty much it for that trip. I was hoping to find more, but it wasn't too bad.
 
Right after that trip some really good storms went through Goffs and Nipton again, so I went back out, alone that time.
 
The most rain was actually right on Goffs, so I drove their first. When I arrived in Fenner I found Goffs Road closed due to a train derailment in Ibis because of the storms. I was pretty pissed but remembered there was another road called Mountain Springs Road that lead into Goffs. I always thought it was a private road the previous times I was there, but realized later it wasn't. I thought for sure it would be closed too, but to my surprise it wasn't. I knew it was a pretty crappy road, and after the storms they just had, I wasn't sure what to expect, especially driving it at night. It actually wasn't bad at all. A few times I thought it was closed, but they were just barriers warning me about spots where the road was gone.
 
Here's some daytime pictures of the road where it was almost completely gone.
 
gallery_2_145_248472.jpg
 
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Here you can see Goffs in the far distance.
 
gallery_2_145_418534.jpg
 
 
Zoomed in, you can see what a giant city Goffs is. :P
 
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Here I spotted the biggest lizard I've ever seen in the wild. It was sunbathing on top of that giant rock. I think it was either a Desert Iguana or a Chuckwalla. I tried to get better pictures, but I couldn't get very close to it before it ran away, only to return right back to its spot as soon as I would get back in my truck. Maybe someone who is more familiar with these can ID it.
 
gallery_2_145_1266166.jpg
 
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This rabbit craps in weird places.
 
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A train heading into Goffs.
 
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Here is Downtown Goffs. As you can see it's a pretty wild place. The night life here can get a bit crazy at times. :lol:
 
gallery_2_145_972135.jpg
 
 
My Predictions for mating flights were pretty good. While here I collected queens of Novomessor cockerelli, Myrmecocystus mexicanus, Pogonomyrmex rugosus, and Camponotus fragilis. All but the M. mexicanus were caught running around at night. Most of the M. mexicanus were dug from founding chambers the next day. I found most of them farther up in the hills along Mountain Springs Road.
 
gallery_2_145_1253779.jpg
 
 
After Goffs, I drove up to Nipton again. I went to Bailey Road again where I dug up a few more M. mexicanus queens, so it seems they might have flown again after more rain fell.
 
Later in the evening, at the same spot Zeiss and I found the Myrmecocystus, I found what I think are Pogonomyrmex maricopa flying. I stayed and collected them until a storm started moving in. There were storms all around me with an insane amount of lightning, so I was getting a little nervous.
 
This is a picture of Nipton Road right at sunset, just before all the storms started to form, mostly over the Las Vegas area.
 
gallery_2_145_2882970.jpg.
 
On the way back I drove directly through a couple of those storms and it was pretty scary. The lightning was directly over the top of me, coming down to the ground all around me.
 
I got a lot of queens, so it was a pretty good trip.


Man, i hate to rebring up this older post, but my god, how beautiful. You guys are about to make me pack my crap and move.
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#1329 Offline gcsnelling - Posted January 27 2019 - 3:12 PM

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Hard to tell the Id for sure on the lizard, desert iguanas rarely perch on rocks  So it is either a chuck, or one of the desert Sceloporus species. My money is more on the Sceloporus.



#1330 Offline B_rad0806 - Posted February 2 2019 - 3:52 PM

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Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
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#1331 Offline Zeiss - Posted February 2 2019 - 5:31 PM

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Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Oops

Oops?

 

And I would say it's too cold to find a lot of things.  There may be a chance to see Prenolepis imparis.


Edited by Zeiss, February 2 2019 - 5:34 PM.


#1332 Offline dspdrew - Posted February 2 2019 - 10:04 PM

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While it may be pouring where most of us live, these winter storms don't drop that much rain in the desert. The summer monsoon storms are what drop a lot of rain in the desert.



#1333 Offline B_rad0806 - Posted February 4 2019 - 5:32 PM

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Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Are you guys going out once all this rain stops? I would imagine having I high chance of finding a queen.
Oops

Oops?

And I would say it's too cold to find a lot of things. There may be a chance to see Prenolepis imparis.

It was a glitch on my phone

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#1334 Offline Enderz - Posted February 5 2019 - 10:38 PM

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While it may be pouring where most of us live, these winter storms don't drop that much rain in the desert. The summer monsoon storms are what drop a lot of rain in the desert.

It also seems to be cold in my area, not sure about OC/San Bernadino. Either way, the only thing that could be flying right now are Dorymyrmex or Veromessor (as Zeiss mentioned). Still wish it was warmer so I could get some sweet sweet Dorymymex in my area :D . Hopefully there is more rain to come this year.


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#1335 Offline Thebrute99 - Posted February 13 2019 - 5:03 PM

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It rained this evening in California city I’m hoping to catch something tomorrow

#1336 Offline dspdrew - Posted February 14 2019 - 5:49 AM

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It rained this evening in California city I’m hoping to catch something tomorrow

 

You might want to check the weather forecast before making plans. It's going to be raining off and on until next week. On top of that, it's very cold here right now, with snow levels dropping to 2000 feet, and so far there is no warm up in sight.



#1337 Offline anttics - Posted February 14 2019 - 4:52 PM

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With this temp not even camponotus will fly. I went a few weeks ago to my spot when 11pm was around 65 degrees. And saw nothing. Just a few ants foraging

#1338 Offline Thebrute99 - Posted February 20 2019 - 9:18 PM

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Wunderground says it will be a high of 67 degrees
Fahrenheit in my area. Thursday I'm going to go check out the dessert

#1339 Offline dspdrew - Posted February 20 2019 - 11:23 PM

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Yeah, it looks like it should be in the 70's next week in the low desert, maybe even up to 80 by Thursday. The ground should still be wet too, so I think there's a decent chance V. pergandei could fly.



#1340 Offline dspdrew - Posted February 21 2019 - 9:28 PM

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That storm was crazy. I don't remember seeing that much thunder and lightning lasting for that long in coastal Southern California as long as I've lived here, and I've been here almost my whole life. It looks like it just blanketed the desert with rain, mostly the area along the 10 freeway, which is perfect. Should be plenty of places where Acromyrmex versicolor will fly, and maybe more honeypot ants as well. It's still sprinkling and mostly cloudy now at 6:00am, so I highly doubt any of them will fly this morning. It also looks like there might be another little wave of storms going through again later today, so I think tonight and tomorrow morning will be most likely when they fly.

 

I really was wanting to look for Cyphomyrmex, as I have never found them before, and since the timing was perfect this time, I don't have to work the next morning when everything flies. I can't remember where I got this information, but I think they flew the same time Acromyrmex flew once in the past, so I'm just going off of that. I really don't know much about them, other than I always see them in the same places I find Acromyrmex.

 

Here are some pictures and videos from this trip that I forgot to post.

 

This road runs along the aqueduct that borders the southern boundary of Joshua Tree National Park. It is normally smooth enough to drive 50 MPH along it, but not after this storm came through; the road was impassable.

 

gallery_2_145_587312.jpg

 

 

Here we saw TONS of new Acromyrmex queens all digging in the same hole. Initially we thought these were just alates hanging around the entrance of a mature nest, but after momentarily scaring them all off, we could see it was just a shallow hole. It looks like they were all trying to dig the same nest. I know some species of queens will team up when digging founding chambers, but this was a bit more than just a team. :lol:

 

 

 

These Myrmecocystus looked like they might have been preparing for a mating flight, but we never saw them fly.

 


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