13 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

I think I was the only one on this forum to find some of these this year. Well anyway, I only found one, but luckily she is doing great! She has a larva that is getting real close to the pupa stage and two larvae really close behind.

Edited by Gregory2455, February 20 2019 - 10:13 PM.

[dspdrew]

Yeah they must have had some top secret mating flights this year.

[kellakk]

I'm willing to bet they flew exactly the same time as last year.

[dspdrew]

Nope. The closest rain to the time they flew last year wasn't enough to make anything fly... except this one Greg caught I guess. I didn't see a single thing anywhere else in the Victor Valley area.

[kellakk]

P. californicus fly due to seasonal changes in photoperiod, not from rain.  This paper (link) goes in depth into the harvester ants of North America, including a section describing mating flights.  It says that some of the maricopa complex evolved this flight-triggered-by-photoperiod in order to cope with invasion into drier deserts.

[dspdrew]

That I know is definitely true about the coastal variety of P. californicus, but the desert bicolor variety is so much different. I wondered if they might fly without rain like the coastal ones, but the only flight I have witnessed happened the day after it poured rain at the spot we found them flying.

 

I haven't read the .pdf yet because I can't seem to open them on the laptop I'm on, but once I can I'll check it out.

[Gregory2455]

Update: 8/11/2015

The queen is about to get a worker!

[Gregory2455]

Update: 8/16/2015

She got her first worker a few days ago, and two more are close behind!

[Lamarr]

Update: 8/16/2015

She got her first worker a few days ago, and two more are close behind!

 

Congrats! Time to feed some seeds I presume?

[Gregory2455]

 

Update: 8/16/2015

She got her first worker a few days ago, and two more are close behind!

 

Congrats! Time to feed some seeds I presume?

 

I gave them some, but they prefer Blue 100 way more. They did split a single nyger seed in half but then went back to chewing on Blue 100.

[Gregory2455]

Pictures!

With one worker:

With two workers:

[Gregory2455]

[Gregory2455]

Update: 9/3/2015

Unlike my concolorous colonies of this species, this colony is doing great! They are up to three workers now.

[Gregory2455]

Discontinued.

The workers died one after the other until finally, today, the queen also died.