170 replies to this topic

[AntPerson76]

I found this at the bottom of my ant supply bin. I can't remember where I got this from though...

[UtahAnts]

Several people in the FB group have reported Tetramorium starting to fly near salt lake en masse. Formica fusca group have been flying for the last few weeks. Also found a termite alate but nothing much else down here given we have gone for several weeks without a day over 80.

[UtahAnts]

Sparse Tetramorium and parasitic Lasius flights throughout the valley for the last week or two. Temperatures are finally starting to rise over 80 on a daily basis. I've been keeping my eyes out for Formica queens but none seen yet.

[UtahAnts]

A large Tetramorium flight yesterday morning in the Provo to Spanish Fork area that lasted for the whole day. Saw a couple Formica alates throughout the week as well - all of this in suburban areas. Highs were consistently over 80 degrees the last week with breezy days and little cloud cover.

[Yourbasicantkeeper]

Cool!

[UtahAnts]

Went through Canyonlands NP the last few days and camped outside of it on BLM land. Throughout the general desert region I saw the following species and genera: 

 

Either Pogonomyrmex occidentalis or salinus

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

Pogonomyrmex californicus

3 Pheidole species

Dorymyrmex bicolor

Dorymyrmex sp. (this species was having nuptial flights each night)

Myrmecocystus mexicanus

Myrmecocystus mendax

2 Formica sp.

Brachymyrmex sp.

Nylanderia hystrix

Camponotus vicinus

Crematogaster sp. queen (see images)

 

 

Any help on the queen ID below, I believe it's Crematogaster but I've never seen this species. The queen was found after dark with wings. She tore three of them off soon after she was introduced to a container.

 

 

 

[UtahAnts]

7/19/23 - It rained about 0.1 to 0.2 inches in Emery county the day before, afterwhich I drove down near Cleveland and looked from 3 to 10 Pm.

 

Weather - Unexpected sameday thunderstorm dumped another half inch while Pogonomyrmex flights were ongoing at around 5 Pm.

Humidity - around 50%.

Winds - 5 to 15 miles an hour

Cloud cover - yes

 

Species flying and when: 

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis 12 to 3 PM

Small Pogonomyrmex sp. 12 PM

Pheidole sp. 8 PM

Formica sp. 12 PM

Myrmecocystus mexicanus 8:30 PM

Dorymyrmex sp. 7:30 PM

 

Also saw Camponotus vicinus colonies in the area.

 

Videos:

Formica queen -  https://www.youtube....rts/sK_VFFj0-is

 

Pogonomyrmex founding chamber timelapse - https://www.youtube....rts/xnp7rXX6hfA

 

 

Pogonomyrmex founding chambers:

 

 

[UtahAnts]

More Pogonomyrmex flights throughout the state, but still waiting for the major monsoon season to begin.

 

The two desert species of queens from previous posts now have developing brood. Interestingly, this includes what I thought was a parasitic formica species but it seems my ID was wrong as they are now laying eggs. Any ideas?

 

Closeup video of formica - https://www.youtube....rts/k0xeoBHLZr8

 

 

[UtahAnts]

Yesterday, on August 4, the massive Pogonomyrmex occidentalis flight of the year took place along the northern half of the state after a large monsoon storm swept through the area.

 

Weather of August 4 in Utah county:

-40% humidity

-85 degrees

-Little cloud cover

-Rained between 0.35 to 2 inches throughout the state

 

Time of flights: around 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

The day before (August 3rd) in Emery county I also found Pogonomyrmex rugosus and occidentalis queens in freshly dug founding chambers, as they likely flew earlier that day or the day before. Additionaly Pheidole, Dorymyrmex (bicolor and all dark species) and Solenopsis molesta flew that night. I believe Myrmecocystus mexicanus flew on the night of August first or second as well, however the surface evidence of founding chambers was washed away.

 

Digging a founding chamber - https://youtube.com/...c?feature=share

 

Weather of August 3rd in Emery county:

-45% humidity

-High 80s

-Part cloud cover, heavy rain in the afternoon

Rained 0.35 inches the day before and an additional 0.3 inches the the day I went.

 

I was there from around 5:30 to 9:00 PM - All the ants out there, excluding the Pogonomyrmex, fly in the evening as the sun goes down.

 

 

 

Edit - Additional link to queen ant sale for any Utahns for the next month: https://www.formicul...august-of-2023/

Edited by UtahAnts, August 5 2023 - 10:54 AM.

[UtahAnts]

Found some parasitic Lasius (possibly L. brevicornis) along with nightly Aphaenogaster flights over the last few weeks in the Utah valley area. Crematogaster, some Pheidole, and Aphaenogaster will continue to be flying for the next week or two, while Lasius spp. and Solenopsis molesta will fly en masse in about 2 weeks, given we get some rainfall sometime soon.

[Mep2001]

Can anyone ID these 3 queens? All found in Northern Utah (Alta up in the little cottonwood canyon) this morning around 10-12. First two pics are of a very small queen ~.1 in, queen in pics 3/4 is bigger but smaller than queen in 5/6. Queen in pics 3/4 is maybe .2 or .25 of an inch and Queen in pics 5/6 is a bit bigger so maybe .33 of an inch or so. First queen is black, second is black with some dark red that doesn’t show up great in pictures and last queen is more of a gold/brown. Plan to try and figure it out myself using antweb.org but wanted to know everyone’s thoughts. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Mep2001, August 24 2023 - 2:01 PM.

[UtahAnts]

I'm really not sure about that first queen, better pics would help immensely. It also might be a drone or even a wasp.

 

The second and third queens are some sort of Lasius, probably not parasitic but take that with a grain of salt as I always have trouble starting them for some reason. 

 

After that rainstorm we had a few days ago I've also seen some Lasius flights around the valley, including parasitic sp, neoniger, and americanus. Along with Solenopsis molesta nuptial flights seemingly every night for the last few days.

[UtahAnts]

Witnessed some Brachymyrmex and Lasius flights tonight. Possibly the last flights until next season. 

 

Time: 6-8 PM

50% humidity, 72 degrees, little wind.

No rain, sparse cloud cover.

 

Overall a decent season, not as good as the 2022 season but good nonetheless. Keep an eye out for early flyers in early May such as Formica and Camponotus vicinus.

 

Additionally attached is a document I put together for future reference.

Attached Files

•  Antkeeping for anyone.pdf   2.67MB   182 downloads

[UtahAnts]

Camponotus season started in Utah county this last week. The northern UT facebook group has recorded several species of Camponotus flying over the last few days, including C. vicinus, C. hyatti, and C. modoc and some other similar species. With the warmer temperatures in the next few days, there should be some more flights.

[UtahAnts]

Lots of Camponotus flights here. C. vicinus, hyatti (pictured), sansabeanus, laevigatus, modoc, and novaeboracensis are all flying. I've also seen a few Formica fusca group queens. We'll likely have Tetramorium in around two weeks as well.

 

 

A larger colony of C. hyatti I kept in this journal a while ago.

 

 

 

[UtahAnts]

Saw Formica neorufibarbis queens and T. immigrans drones. Light showers lately with warm temperatures. I suspect we'll have large Tetramorium flights en masse soon, maybe on Friday of this week in Utah county with the forecasted cloudy (hopefully rainy) conditions.

[IdioticMouse26]

Saw Formica neorufibarbis queens and T. immigrans drones. Light showers lately with warm temperatures. I suspect we'll have large Tetramorium flights en masse soon, maybe on Friday of this week in Utah county with the forecasted cloudy (hopefully rainy) conditions.

Nice! Just wish that same thing would happen here in BC, I'm really hoping to catch some T. immigrans queens.

[UtahAnts]

Took a trip down to the deserts of Emery county with the recent abundance of thunderstorms. Still too early for most harvesters and pots, but I was able to find Formica and Pheidole pictured respectively below.

 

75 degrees at 9 pm.

Some cloud cover.

Full moon.

8 mph winds.

High humidity ~ 80%

 

Formica sp. flew in the morning after around an inch of rainfall the day before. Found in a dry wash.

Pheidole sp. flew at dusk after half an inch of rain the earlier that day. Nuptial swarms were everywhere and continued through the night.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by UtahAnts, June 24 2024 - 10:24 PM.

[UtahAnts]

Added pictures to the post above. Also found this nice Camponotus modoc queen up near Heber this evening while sitting outside on a family friend's porch. Notice the small mite on the petiole.

 

 

 

 

 

And the Camponotus hyatti from a few weeks ago are all coming along - some queens with pupae now.

 

 

Edited by UtahAnts, June 24 2024 - 10:12 PM.

[UtahAnts]

With the thunderstorms over Emery county for the last few days I was sure something would be flying the day after they stopped. Sure enough, Camponotus vicinus, Solenopsis molesta, Monomorium minimum, Pheidole cf. ceres, Dorymyrmex bicolor, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, Pogonomyrmex rugosus, Formica sp. (see below), and Myrmecocystus mexicanus all flew within 24 hours of the last rainfall.

 

0.7 inches the night before. More the 2 days before that.

86 degree high. 71 degrees at 9 pm.

No cloud cover.

Full moon.

3 mph winds.

Humidity ~ 50%

 

I seemed to luck out on the location as normally Pogonomyrex and Myrmecocystus mexicanus fly later in the year; indeed I just happened to stumble across the only area in the general region with early flying colonies as far as I could tell from later excursions the next day. I've never seen these species fly so early. I'm assuming it has to do with the heat we have had this year, and the large monsoon-like storm coming through in June.

 

 

 

 

Some pictures and notes of each species for future reference.

 

 

Camponotus vicinus - flew that night at around 9:30 PM. 2 queens were found wandering along the wash within an hour of the flight.

 

 

 

 

 

Solenopsis molesta - 1 queen found wandering the ground at dusk ~ 9 PM.

 

Monomorium minimum - 1 queen found in a founding chamber from a flight the day before in a more northern region.

 

Pheidole cf. ceres - Flights began at dusk around 8:30 PM. 50+ queens were found from 9 PM through the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorymyrmex bicolor - 2 queens found around 9 PM. Flights started around 8 PM - made evident by the drone swarm surrounding my head for the next hour! I was quite literally inhaling drones - the swarm followed me everywhere. 

 

 

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis - Flew around 5 PM. Only about 15% of mature colonies in the area were sending out alates. 20 queens found throughout area.

 

Pogonomyrmex rugosus - Flew around 4:30 PM. Only about 30% of mature colonies in the area were sending alates. 35 queens found along rocky hillside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formica sp. - Hoping for some identification. 4 queens found around 2:30 PM in a more northern region.

 

 

 

 

 

Myrmecocystus mexicanus - Flew that night around 9 PM. 18 queens found during both the night and in founding chambers the morning after. Queens were all closing chambers

around 7 AM. My phone died so I was not able to take images of the founding chambers unfortunately. Most queens were found within ~50 ft of the nearest large wash.

 

 

 

I'm assuming these queens were grouped according to their mother colony? Maybe sensing the same pheromones?