16 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

I found two of these on my black light last night- pretty cool.

Album:

 

http://www.formicult...10-neivamyrmex/

 

Edited by Gregory2455, July 13 2015 - 4:38 PM.

[dspdrew]

Very sausage-like.

[Gregory2455]

Very sausage-like.

Most definitely.

[Wamdar]

Sausage fly!

[Gregory2455]

[WeatherAnt]

Do these ants have large nuptial flights? Or do males just turn up randomly?

[Alza]

Only the males fly. 

Since they are army ants.

[Gregory2455]

Do these ants have large nuptial flights? Or do males just turn up randomly?

During the summer months colonies release males in a constant, but thin stream.

[LC3]

How do army ants found colonies than?

[Alza]

When queens mate, they split off from the colony and take a decent amount of workers with them.

[Gregory2455]

How do army ants found colonies than?

The original queen makes a few queens and the colony divides up by queen. After dividing, males will mate with the new queens.

[dspdrew]

I thought I heard that sometimes new males will infiltrate an established colony and mate with the queen.

[Gregory2455]

I thought I heard that sometimes new males will infiltrate an established colony and mate with the queen.

That too.

[gcsnelling]

This is most likely N. nigrescens or N. opacithorax. o the best of my knowledge mating occurs in the colony before they bud off.

[WeatherAnt]

 

Do these ants have large nuptial flights? Or do males just turn up randomly?

During the summer months colonies release males in a constant, but thin stream.

 

 

Okay, cool, thanks! 

[MrILoveTheAnts]

 

 

Do these ants have large nuptial flights? Or do males just turn up randomly?

During the summer months colonies release males in a constant, but thin stream.

 

 

Okay, cool, thanks! 

 

Yes when I was in Arizona, the most we ever had show up at a light at night was 2. A single colony will only divide once a year, twice on a good year. Along with producing lots of males that fly off and do their own thing, they make several new queens. New queens that aren't mated with after a certain time are abandoned or executed the way excess queens in a founding colony are slowly offed. I'm told you can sometimes find abandoned queens hanging out in areas where bivouacs used to be or sometimes along the trail they took, hiding under leaves and such.

[Gregory2455]

Yes when I was in Arizona, the most we ever had show up at a light at night was 2. 

that's funny because there were exactly two on my black light.