5 replies to this topic

[CAantz]

I have two colonies of pheidole and I never bothered to find out what kind they are, so better late than never. These colonies here both caught in my backyard. The first one was under a flowerpot, and the one with six queens was caught with a black light.
One colony has a single black queen about 4-5mm and 50-60 workers. The workers are small 1-2mm and oringish brownish. They have two clearly different kinds of majors (but not super majors). On major is about 3-4mm, and it has a very small abdomen, and a large orange head. The other kind is slightly larger, but has a 4-5mm all black and stubby body and looks like a short version of the queen.
The second colony I am pretty sure is Californica, but I am just double checking. They have six queens about 5mm and the queens are a very dark brownish red with lighter thoraxes and heads. There are about 10-20 workers. The workers are about 1-2mm and are more orange than the other colony. The majors are as big as the queens, and have the same colors. If anyone knows the species of these colonies, I would greatly your input.
(Pictures coming tonight)

[CAantz]

Majors from the first colony. For some reason the orange one is larger than the black one, but normally it is the other way around.

You can see that in the second colony the majors are as big as the queen.

Edited by CAantz, July 29 2023 - 7:43 AM.

[ReignofRage]

Unfortunately you won't be able to get an identification with photos with that quality. However, the list of species can be narrowed down if you provide a more precise locale.

[CAantz]

Yah sorry, I’m just using my IPhone for this. I found these ants in Pacific Palisades, which is in LA and near the outskirts of Santamonica.

[ReignofRage]

The colony with differing colored majors is likely P. navigans and the second colony is possibly P. creightoni. 

[CAantz]

Thank you! I just looked them up and the pictures online are very similar to the colonies that I have.