2 replies to this topic

[FloridaAnts]

Greetings!
I have decided to make a journal for all my adventures to find my dream species, Odontomachus relictus. Some may say, why can’t you settle for the invasive Odontomachus? Well, if I am going to be honest, i really don’t want too many invasives, as all but 2 of my 12-15 colonies are invasive. Today was a decent rain, so I decided to adventure into a friends backyard who lives in the native range of O. Relictus. To much disappointment, I found 2 O ruginodis queens and 6 other species. I believe these others are all O. Haematodus. I do have hope, as one queen is not the typical Odontomachus queens I usually see.

How I find queens is simple. I wait for a heavy rain, and once it stops, adventure outside. Due to heavy rains, new queens without eggs come up to the surface under leaves and pots. I simply lift up the pots, and usually find a frog, a pheidole colony, or a trap-jaw ant worker. Today I did find Ponera for once, but didn’t want to find the queen as soon as I lifted up the stone, Camponotus workers went for the cocoons. Rarely, you see a sharp movement which tends to be a trap jaw ant queen seeking shelter.

[Manitobant]

If you want relictus, you need to go to archbold biological station or another similar area. They only nest in undisturbed sand scrub habitat.

[FloridaAnts]

If you want relictus, you need to go to archbold biological station or another similar area. They only nest in undisturbed sand scrub habitat.

I go to a forest where they have been reported in the area, and I did find one queen but I kind of used a peanut butter jar to collect, and crushed it on accident. Hate myself for that.

I am a bit away from there, but I have a friend in the reported range. I am also moving into a undsiturbed place with sandy grasslands, and I did see a queen over there once, but I didn’t have a container on hand.

Edited by FloridaAnts, June 18 2022 - 6:28 PM.