16 replies to this topic

[KadinB]

So I recently got a Veromessor sp identified as Chicoensis by reignofrage. These guys are only found in northern California which is exiting. I had found a spot here for them also. But anyways I had found some inside of a pool at the spot and collected two dead queens I had found in there. There was a ton of dead queens in that pool. 

Gonna add more stuff tomorrow since I have school.

Edited by KadinB, February 20 2022 - 2:04 AM.

[Tyr_Ants]

That's sick they look cool too

[KadinB]

That's sick they look cool too

Yea I can't wait to catch these guys. I will be selling some if I have extra colonies when I get some queens.

[yaboiseth]

I would love to buy one if you get some. I plan on hunting for Veromessor pergandei and dorymyrmex in Feb/March and hopefully extra to sell too lol.

[KadinB]

I'm gonna start working on this thread more. I have 2 dead queens of Veromessor chicoensis. I had asked Brian L. Fisher if they had specimens and he replied saying no! So I will be shipping out 2 dead queens to him. I also will possibly be catching a flight. They fly around late June. I had found the queens inside of a pool on June 29th 2021. I will be staying at the spot for at least 2 weeks around the time they fly. They also fly at night too. So I will have to be out all night checking to see if they are flying yet or not. I also have no idea what seeds they will accept too. They also may hibernate (likely) but we are still not to sure about it.

 

Edit pic will be added soon

Edited by KadinB, October 20 2021 - 4:25 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Genus name should be capitalized.

[KadinB]

[KadinB]

Genus name should be capitalized.

My bad lol. I always forget to capitalize it. Thanks.

[KadinB]

Not sure why, but I can't upload the picture.

Edited by KadinB, October 20 2021 - 4:28 PM.

[KadinB]

There we go!

[KadinB]

Gonna be going to the spot tomorrow! hoping I can find some workers there. I'll make a YouTube video on my channel if I see any workers. I don't know If I will find any because of them hibernating possibly. 

[KadinB]

No luck...... I found nothing there. It was rainy there sadly. 

[ANTdrew]

If you can capitalize YouTube, then you can know to capitalize genus names of ants.

[Antkeeper01]

 

He's too powerful to be left alive!!!

Edited by Antkeeper01, November 7 2021 - 5:36 AM.

[ReignofRage]

After seeing better quality pictures, it turns out these are V. andrei.

[KadinB]

After seeing better quality pictures, it turns out these are V. andrei.

Thank you rage for the id. I ended up getting better pictures of the spines and he confirmed that they are andrei. 

[KadinB]

Well, I meet again with this journal. I made a trip to go to Chico (where they are found) and look in an area where there are records. We pulled up to the spot and found lots of new houses being built up in their habitat. We than we towards the record and flipped about 5 rocks. We than found them under a rock. I was very excited to see them in person with my own eyes. But right under that same rock there was a snake. We had to move the snake to get to the ants. We moved it away from the rock using a stick and bent down to take a look. We saw lots of polymorphism in them which is very cool. The smallest workers are nearly fully black and look similar to Veromessor andrie found here in NorCal that are fully black. Then the majors have an orange head. I had my friend use his aspirator to suck them up since mine was broken. We saw really cool chambers in some larvae in them. We were than collecting up some workers for specimens and my friend shouted "QUEEN!!!" and he collected it.

 

His aspirator wasn't really working too well so we only collected about 15 workers. This colony had around 150 workers and was not a mature colony. This colony was pretty small as well. We stood up and moved them into a test tube. I looked in there and saw no queen and just workers/majors. We than were pretty upset. We than moved on to find some more. We than found about 4 other colonies under rocks with no queens visible. I really love the size, colors and looks of this species. They are very very cool. We than also found a colony of Pheidole hyatti there too. We then got inside of the car to go out to 2 other spots to looks for other species of ants. We didn't really find much at the other 2 places. I than went back home

 

. I left those workers in the tube for a few hours why'll I was doing other stuff. I than decided to take a look at them. I was looking in the tube and saw a "major" that looked like a queen. I than took that "major" out of the tube to get a closer look at it. I looked at the thorax and it was larger than the others. it was queen!! I than got some pictures of her. She was very dusty from the dirt in the tube, so I wasn't able to see her true colors. I than put them into a mini hearth and then was told I should move them into a tube and tubes. So, I spend about an hour doing that. They were put into the tubs and tubes setup. I am the first person to ever keep these which is very exciting. They are also very under studied so I will be able to find out some new things with them and share them with the ant keeping community. If you also don't like the fact that I collected a colony, these were collected to study them in captivity. I hope I can catch flights of these guys one day. 
 

Chico Harvester Ant (Veromessor chicoensis) from Chico, CA, USA on May 14, 2021 at 07:50 PM by Rob Irwin. A large foraging column crossing a rocky flat · iNaturalist

 

Here are the records that led me to the spot. ^^^^

 

Chico Harvester Ant (Veromessor chicoensis) from Native Oak Dr, Chico, CA, US on February 19, 2022 at 02:52 PM by kadin0721 · iNaturalist

 

link of an iNaturalist observation done by me. ^^^^

 

 

Here's a link to the journal. 

 

kadin's Veromessor chicoensis journal - Ant Keeping Journals - Ants & Myrmecology Forum (formiculture.com)