5 replies to this topic

[Mercutia]

Soooo I know I found some P. imparis earlier this year and was looking at the mating chart so I could go visit the colony again during mating flights. It says Jan - May however I know for sure that most of Jan - March is covered in snow in my location (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Anyone know a more accurate time frame I should be looking at and what conditions they fly in (like after a heavy rain, temp, etc)?

[Crystals]

They are one of the first to fly in spring, with several smaller flights happening later as more alates eclose in nests that were slower to start.  They tend to fly while other ants are still coming out of hibernation, so on the first warm days keep your eyes open.

 

From the reports I have seen, they tend to fly between 10am and 4pm.

 

One person reported spreading a yellow blanket on a clothesline to dry, and that it became covered in alates as they kept landing on it, with a mating swarm flying around it.

[dspdrew]

Yeah Mercutia, you are lucky being where you are. From what I hear, in climates like yours, they usually fly the first day above 70 F/21 C, so that would be a good reference for you. Supposedly it's a lot easier to pin-point the day they fly in those places. The January flights you are seeing is for places like Southern California, where it gets above 70 F almost every day. I'm actually planning to go look for Prenolepis imparis tomorrow because our temperature is supposed to jump up 12 degrees to 72 F. Monday I might even go look again, because it's supposed to hit 80 F then. Anyways, this is why we need to modify that chart by location, which I am definitely planning to do, as a matter of fact, I'm actually working on at least formatting it to look much nicer this very moment.

[Mercutia]

In Toronto it gets a little weird though. Sometimes we have fake spring starts. So it feels warm like spring, and the next week it snows. I will still expect flights on those fake starts?

[dspdrew]

Here's what Doctorant (Dr. James Trager) had to say about a very similar Prenolepis imparis question I asked him last year.
 

Their readiness to fly in warmer climates such as coastal California's probably has to do with their sensing longer day lengths and also very likely, warmer soil temperatures. Though warm days occur in winter there, soil temperatures remain cooler. Day length almost certainly primes them in colder climates too, but flights have to await those warm days when the alates' flight muscles will work. We always get the first reports of this ant flying from California and the Southeast, then the flights progress inland to later dates, even into May at the coldest-climate localities.

[dspdrew]

Here's some Prenolepis imparis I saw today.