5 replies to this topic

[Skwiggledork]

I searched for another 30 minutes in a tiny little area but could only find this one lone worker. Still the first time I've seen one and now I know a spot to look for them, so maybe one day I'll get a colony. Right now I just need to work on getting better pictures of this one.

[KitsAntVa]

This should help https://www.formicul...lipes-founding/

[Skwiggledork]

This should help https://www.formicul...lipes-founding/

I'm pretty sure this is just a worker.

[KitsAntVa]

Read it, he explains i'm pretty sure in the first part how to find and catch them.

[antsandmore]

you are so lucky! I want this species so bad. good luck on looking for a colony.

[Ferox_Formicae]

Good luck! I discovered there's actually two populations at my new house in Prosperity, the larger, darker phase in the vegetative buffer separating my house from the lake and the smaller, lighter phase in the lot across from my house, which is a forested floodplain no one wants to build on. If you want to find a colony, my advice is to not spend too much time looking in the area you found the worker. Instead, look around that area in promising locations, such as under rocks, under and inside logs, at the base of trees and stumps, under bushes, etc. Do some litter collections and use either a Berlese funnel or a Davis sifter to try and locate individuals. I think the best way to go about looking would be to locate foragers and follow them back to their nests. This can be tedious though, as they're slow-moving and may take a while to find prey to bring back to the nest. Personally, the way I found the colony of a darker phase individual was just by pulling back some leaf litter and detritus that had collected around the base of a large oak where the forager was located. I actually found two colonies that way. Good luck!