23 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

7-27-2015
 
I caught about 100 of these queens while sitting on my porch in Costa Mesa, California around 5:00 am 7-19-2015. There was a tropical storm the day before that brought us some extreme humidity. It was about 75 degrees F, and 98% humidity that afternoon! I set my black light up in my window, and just sucked up every queen I saw with my aspirator.
 
ID Threads:
https://www.formicul...y-ca-12-7-2012/
https://www.formicul...y-ca-8-16-2013/
https://www.formicul...rnia-6-16-2014/
 
Location:  Costa Mesa, Orange County, California.
Habitat:  Well kept apartment landscaping/Urban.
Coloration, hue and pattern:  All very dark brown, head and gaster slightly darker.
Length:  4.5mm.
 
I found some of these in my apartment two years ago, but none of them turned out to be fertile. Well see how it goes this year. They were all over my porch ripping their wings off, so I'm pretty sure I got some fertile ones this time.
 
I dumped all of them into a tub lined with Fluon, and waited for them to remove their wings. Within a day, about a quarter of them had removed their wings, so I split them up into three test tubes. After returning from my desert anting trip, I found another quarter of them without wings, so I just stuck all of those into a fourth test tube.
 
They quickly started producing very large piles of eggs.
 
Edit: This species name was changed from Pheidole moerens to Pheidole navigans.
 

 

Edited by dspdrew, June 20 2020 - 6:40 PM.

[LC3]

Are these Pheidole polygynous?

[dspdrew]

I'm pretty sure they are. I wouldn't be surprised if almost all Pheidole are polygyne.

[Myrmicinae]

http://www.antwiki.o...heidole_moerens

 

According to antweb, P. moerens is monogynous.  However, this may differ in captivity.

[Myrmicinae]

Actually, see this post by 123LordOfAnts123 on P. moerens.  Apparently, they are strictly monogynous even in captivity.

Have kept this species on and off the last several years, they're probably the most common and widespread Pheidole species here in Central Florida second to Ph. dentata. Though as you noted, they're fairly inconspicuous. They have to be perhaps the easily collected ant for me; a mature colony can reside in as little as a 6x1" branch. Just about every piece of wood in a moist area that has sat for more than a month houses a colony, here. They fly in large numbers at first light beginning spring, preferring warm humid mornings. Alates are highly attracted to light during the transition to dawn so they're easily lured with the use of a black light. The small black queens are easily collected and often found colonies via pleometrosis. Exploiting this, a colony can easily be jump started with 50 queens in a single test tube, though normally only one remains soon after the first eclosing of workers. Coupled with their fast growth rate (egg-to-worker has been as little as 18 days at 80+ degrees for me, with the nanitics usually eclosing the fastest) I've grown colonies to maturity within 5 months.

 

 

From http://www.formicult...d-observations/

Edited by Myrmicinae, July 27 2015 - 8:41 PM.

[dspdrew]

Well maybe I'll separate some of them out then, but my friend Art has a colony of what I believe is them (based on his Facebook posts), and they have multiple queens. I'd like to find out for sure if they are P. moerens now.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-8-2015
 
These all got workers about two days ago. This is now the fastest I have ever had any species of ants go from mating to having workers. It only took about two and a half weeks! I guess I definitely got some fertile ones this time.
 

 

[Vendayn]

From my understanding, they grow very fast, but the queens only live 1-3 years. So, they have rather short lifespans. They are still a pretty neat species, though.

[dspdrew]

These guys sure like Formula Blue.
 

[Gregory2455]

How cool.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-9-2015
 
Well I think it might be true that these are strictly monogynous. I was down to three colonies of these, and this is all that's left of one of them.
 

 
 
Every queen was ripped to pieces. The fact that there isn't a single queen fully intact, leads me to believe that the workers did this. The two other colonies on the other hand, haven't killed off a single queen. One of them has their first major now.
 

 

 

[Gregory2455]

Nice. The major looks cool. I am rather convinced now that mine are the same species, but I will need to wait for a major to be sure.

Edited by Gregory2455, September 8 2015 - 11:26 PM.

[Alza]

Wait, the workers killed all of the queens ? or left one ?

[dspdrew]

All of them.

[Alza]

Update ?

[gcsnelling]

Stay tuned for a likely  name change for the Southern California populations of this ant.

Edited by gcsnelling, October 16 2015 - 2:44 AM.

[dspdrew]

Did DNA reveal that these are actually not P. moerens?

[gcsnelling]

Not sure of the criteria used yet.  The paper should be out soon though

[Vendayn]

Will be interesting to see what species they actually are.

 

I know they spread VERY fast, but I guess a short lifespan. In the past year, I've noticed a lot of new colonies of these all around here. They are hard to find though, because they are so small and not very noticeable. Plus, they aren't aggressive either from what I noticed.

[Alza]

They arent aggressive ? so they won't kill anything ? just scavenge ???