170 replies to this topic

[UtahAnts]

Hello all,

I've been looking around and I have found that there is no anting or nuptial flight watch for the state of Utah. So I thought I would start one for ant keepers that live in Utah now, and for a future reference for ant keepers who might live in Utah or close by. In this thread, anything relating to ants can be posted, specifically nuptial flights, member introductions, local ants, and even ant shops for those interested in buying.

 

Some quick ant statistics for those of you who are new, Utah has 225* native species, the majority of them being, Formica, Camponotus, Crematogaster, and Lasius.

 

To start off, I recently went anting up a nearby canyon. During my 2 hour expedition I found 4 species of ants:

Monomorium Minimum

Tetramorium immigrans

Solenopsis molesta

Crematogaster cerasi

 

In Utah County, Tetramorium immigrans is unfortunately the most dominant ant species, with monomorium, formica and camponotus following. In this case the thief ants were often living inside the Tetramorium colonies or at least a few inches away. The one large Crematogaster colony I found was next to a large termite colony, all under one rock! I had never seen this before, and the ants and termites apparently either ignored each other or did not know of each others presence up to that point. After I flipped their rock, the two groups immediately started to attacking each other, the termite soldiers lunging at the stinging crematogaster workers. The Crematogaster queen was a few inches from all of this, surrounded by a bivouac type of structure. 

This early in the season, ants don't fly in Utah, but you can easily find colonies under rocks, bathing in the warmth, the hard part is finding the queen. I hope this thread will help others and I can't wait to start documenting local nuptial flights!

 

A large tetra colony under multiple stones:

 

A thief ant colony:

 

A size comparison between 2 workers:

 

Two colonies under one rock, the termites on the top:

 

Crematogaster Workers:

 

The unknown termite species:

 

*Ant Maps

Edited by UtahAnts, January 14 2023 - 10:00 PM.

[UtahAnts]

4.3.20

 

A quick recap of my anting trip on April 3:

Temp: 75-80 degrees

Weather: Low cloud cover and full sun

 

I recently went back up the same canyon for about an hour and had tremendous success, I found around 20 colonies, 15 of which were Crematogaster. This surprised me as I had seen only a few Crema colonies until now, and to think they were right under my nose for years! I also found 2 colonies of different Lasius species, both were small in number and size. It was pretty hot that day so many of the queens were visible at the top in each colony. But I think the most important thing I learned was the exact conditions needed for finding crema colonies, with a 90% success rate of finding a colony:

• Go anting on a warm, sunny day up a canyon/valley
• Look for elevated areas with small, lush micro fauna, usually on the sides of a road/trail
• Find 3-15 inch stones with a certain lichen growing on them (pictured below)
• Flip the stone and try not to disturb the nest, the queen will be buried under a dogpile of workers

I used these steps to find more ants then I could ever count. All in all it was a good anting trip, still trying to find Formica in the canyon, as they are out everywhere in the sub-urban areas. Species found in order from most common to least common:

• Crematogaster emeryana
• Small Lasius colonies
• Solenopsis molesta
• Monomorium minimum
• Tetramorium immigrans
• Camponotus hyatti

This gives me hope for other species besides molesta and immigrans to have a chance at thriving in Utah valley.

 

 

Native Utah Desert Plants, near by were 5 Crema colonies:

 

This was the lichen that was a giveaway for the correct stones, perhaps the ants and lichen had similar weather preferences?

 

Large Crema colonies under stones with lichen, the second being the largest I had ever seen:

 

Thief ants slowly killing a once large crema colony:

 

Unidentified Lasius:

Attached Images

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Edited by AntsUtah, August 13 2021 - 5:26 PM.

[UtahAnts]

4.8.21

 

Because of last times success, I went up yet again and this time explored the higher altitude forest in Maple canyon. I followed a deer trail through the forest, occasionally flipping over rocks and found a good amount of colonies, and several I had never actually seen before, namely a large Lasius flavus nest and satellite nests with pink root aphids in each. Also saw some alate larvae in the flavus colony, so I'll be sure to catch some this season! I saw some smaller Lasius workers which I believe to be Lasius umbratus, another first time species for me. I also found an unidentified species, which I had never seen before, along with a large Monomorium colony living in dead dry wood. New species I found today were: 

• Lasius flavus
• cf Lasius umbratus
• Aphaenogaster??

Here are some quick images:

 

 

The overall area where I was searching:

 

 

The unidentified colony. Workers about a centimeter long, my best guess was Aphaenogaster boulderensis or uinta. Possibly even a carpenter ant species? Any ID help would be appreciated.

 

 

Lasius flavus and their purple "cows":

 

 

cf Lasius Umbratus, this colony was not far away from the flavus, but a distinct size difference was noticeable, with the flavus being about twice as large

 

 

And finally a random pic of a Monomorium minimum colony nesting in some dry wood, which was surprising, as I thought I was going to find Camponotus in this piece

[NickAnter]

The unidentified colony is an Aphaenogaster sp., and you probably have the Lasius IDs mixed up. The bigger workers will most likely be a parasitic species. Also, umbratus does not occur in the US, it is aphidicola. I do not think these match that however, they look a bit more like an Acanthomyops species. And you hve a fair few of those in Utah, and they are rather difficult to ID. All in all very nice finds though! Makes me wish I didn't live in California...

Edited by NickAnter, April 9 2021 - 8:48 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

Everything Nick said, but you would also say Lasius cf. umbratus, not cf Lasius umbratus.

[bobross1232]

Hello, I am new to ant keeping, and i was just wondering what are some of the best places to go hunting for queen ants. Over the past couple of weeks of gone on 15-30 min walks around my neighborhood, But i just haven't had any success so far. Any tips and tricks would also be apriciated.

[UtahAnts]

Do you live in utah? If you do, any canyon or any dry stream bed works great, just flip over some rocks and you're bound to find something. If you are looking for queens, we don't really have anything flying right now in utah valley, so catching a colony is your best bet, if that's what you're into to. The best spots are usually in parks and wilderness. Pogonomyrmex and pots are flying if you live to the south or west of utah. Camponotus will fly soon as well, as soon as we can get a warm day.

[UtahAnts]

April 17

 

I have covered and documented most of the common species found in northern Utah besides camponotus. Last week (mid 60's), I went anting up a canyon and I finally found large formica colonies, one of my main targets for this year, along with some very interesting black ants that I had never seen before in utah. I'm not the best at ID'ing so if someone more experienced sees something feel free to comment. A summary of the species found:

 

-3 different species of lasius

-2 formica species

-Tetramorium immigrans

-Unidentified Black species

-4xMonomorium minimum

-9xcrematogaster cerasi/emeryana

-Solenopsis Molesta

 

And here's the photo dump of some of the colonies:

 

Wood dwelling crematogaster, gave me some ideas for some interesting formicariums:

 

 

Some more crema:

 

 

Here's an extremely large tetra colony with hundreds of elate pupae...yikes!!

 

 

A very large black formica colony that had taken over a large bark mound created by termites:

 

 

 

The other large formica species, very aggressive and fast, large and pointed mandibles, almost seem like slave raiders to me. These colonies are loud, and you can hear them moving around if they are large enough.

 

 

 

And last but not least, the unidentified black ants, they were about 0.8-1.5 cm long, and had a similar build to pogonomyrmex.

 

 

 

 

Edited by AntsUtah, April 22 2021 - 5:27 PM.

[UtahAnts]

On April 30th and May 1, the first large nuptial flight occurred in southern Utah valley. It was humid and pretty windy, but the temperature got above 80 during the day. I'm unsure of the species so if someone could ID it that would be very helpful. Almost looks like Formica, but it seems a little early, and this queen had a nuptial chamber under a rock. Large black drones were prevalent everywhere, but queens were elusive. 

 

ID features: 

Black, about 2 cm long, large head, nesting in sandy soil next to a river

 

 

 

 

While anting recently, I found some Pheidole. I had never seen any type of Pheidole before in my life so this was very exciting. I literally had to climb a mountain to see them though...

 

 

 

 

Here's some higher-altitude Monomorium:

 

 

And here's the first Camponotus worker (major) that I saw foraging on April 22:

 

Edited by UtahAnts, June 4 2022 - 9:55 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Awesome Pheidole! Your queen does look like Formica to me.

[Kaelwizard]

The first queen is Formica. She might be from last year since it is too early for them to be flying or it is a reject.

[NickAnter]

Yeah, those males look like Camponotus to me. The finding of the Formica queen was most likely coincidental.

[UtahAnts]

Camponotus vicinus had a nuptial flight sometime this last week. These seem to fly as soon as it hits 80 degrees during the day, and when it's warm during the evening and night. I found this queen under a rock, without eggs, last night while hiking a mountain. She was next to an aqueduct of sorts running along the hill. This species is pretty rare, or at least elusive, in my region, I've only seen workers outside of the nest a few times.

 

Edited by AntsUtah, September 23 2021 - 4:54 PM.

[bobross1232]

I was at work, and I saw a few of what I believe to be tetranarium queen ants.

[UtahAnts]

Really?! I know the most prominent species, Tetramorium immigrans, flies in and after june. All the tetra colonies I see still have large alate larvae. Perhap the queens could have been temnothorax, lasius, or some other species?

[bobross1232]

It could very well be a different ant, I'm still rather new to the antkeeping world, so I might make some mistakes in identifying and such. Let me upload a picture, and we can figure this out.

[bobross1232]

It could very well be a different ant, I'm still rather new to the antkeeping world, so I might make some mistakes in identifying and such. Let me upload a picture, and we can figure this out.

Attached Images

• 

Edited by bobross1232, May 28 2021 - 2:04 PM.

[UtahAnts]

That does look a lot like a tetramorium species, although I think it might also be a Pheidole sp., either way that's a nice find!

Edited by AntsUtah, November 3 2021 - 1:01 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

Looks identical to T. immigrans queens I have seen.

[UtahAnts]

Yesterday, on May 31, I found male and female Camponotus hyatti alates taking off and beginining a nuptial flight from a rotten log

 

Weather:

-25% humdity

-78-low 80's

-Sparse cloud cover

 

Time: around 3:30-5:00 PM

Edited by AntsUtah, June 1 2021 - 7:07 AM.