11 replies to this topic

[IdioticMouse26]

Hello everyone! I am at South Korea for a month as a family trip and it is my country of origion. So I though it would be amazing to share my ant findings to you guys! Me and my family is staying at my grandparent's home during the month, and its perfect. Its a really grassy and forestry area with TONS of arthropods. Please help me in identifying some ants in the pictures below. 

 

Day 1: I was too tired to take pictures

 

Day 2: Ants I found very close to the house:

 

Camponotus Japonicus:

Queen:

 

Different polymorphsim of Japonicus tandem running:

 

Species I don't know:

(updated to clearer picture) I can move its gastor very dexteriously.

 

Nylanderia flavipes:

 

Pristomyrmex punctatus:

I find these guys everywhere. They swarm really fast and tends to build nests between crevices. I've seen them make trails that are over 50m long.

 

Their nest entrance:

 

Other local fauna:

Massive planaria (my hand for scale):

 

A beautiful spider. We call them Tiger spiders in Korea:

 

A very pretty and very dead beetle(does anyone know which species it is?):

 

Cute grasshoppers:

 

That's all! Thank you for reading! I'll upload more as I find new insects.

Edited by IdioticMouse26, July 21 2024 - 4:52 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Those two ants don’t look like Crematogaster.

[OiledOlives]

The first ant you think is Crematogaster is a Camponotus species

The second ant you think is Crematogaster is Nylanderia flavipes

The "unknown" ant is Pristomyrmex punctatus

[Stubyvast]

Wow awesome that you can get to see these guys! (too bad you can't smuggle some queens across the border back home, haha). 

[TAO777]

Camponotus japonicus 

maby...

Edited by TAO777, July 12 2024 - 6:33 PM.

[ChenZ]

Nice observations! 

 

The "dead beetle" is a Hemiptera, probably Poecilocoris.

 

The "grasshoppers" in the last photo looks like Tridactylidae, but I'm not 100% sure without a more detailed close-up photo

[IdioticMouse26]

The first ant you think is Crematogaster is a Camponotus species

The second ant you think is Crematogaster is Nylanderia flavipes

The "unknown" ant is Pristomyrmex punctatus

Thanks! I'll correct my post.

Although, I could be wrong here, and your probably way better at identifying ant species then me, and it is my fault that the quality of some of the pictures are bad, espically the image of the first ant that I thought was cremogastor. I can totally see why you could think its a camponotus. But in my personal opinion, I don't think its a camponotus. I'll post a clearer picture of the species and you can perhaps take another look at it. 

Thanks again for identifying the other ants though, I really appreciate it.

[IdioticMouse26]

Day 3: Went out early and came back late to see the Seoul city. Did you know Korea has a dedicated road for buses?

 

Day 4: Found some more interesting insects (sadly, no new ants):

 

A weird grasshopper thingy:

 

Bunch of praying mantises in different stages of growth(I have yet to find a fully grown one):

 

A carnivores(!) fly(is it even a fly?): 

I saw it eating some other insects

 

Paper wasps:

 

Good old Tetramorium:

 

Thank you for reading! Any help in identifying the species is much appreciated!

Edited by IdioticMouse26, July 13 2024 - 11:39 PM.

[IdioticMouse26]

Day 5-6: Here are things I found:

 

A very cool ant mimic-ing spider:

I first thought it was a camponotus japonicus worker but upon closer look, I realized it was a spider!! I think it was indeed mimicing camponotus japonicus.

 

What I think is Lasius niger(please correct me if I'm wrong):

 

Unidentified species queen:

I found her as a sole surviver in a spider's web. The web was full of alates attracted to light cuz the spider built its nest infront of a small billboard.

 

A wasp or a drone:

 

What I think is some sort of mayfly:

 

So far, I'm discovering so many insects and ants I have never seen in Canada before! I wish I could do a better job at taking pictures so I could show it to you guys better. Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll be going to jeju island for 3 days so I won't be able to upload during that time but I'll make sure to take tons of picures of the arthropods there! 

 

[Stubyvast]

Wow nice! It's startling to see how many Mantises there are in Korea! I've maybe seen two or three my whole life in BC. I expect the spider does indeed mimic japonicus, and prey on them too probably. Seeing as how you found some of their workers around, spiders mimicking them should be nearby! I wonder if they can replicate the ants' pheromones (research queued)! As for the queen you found, looks like tetramorium, but I'm unsure what species. Probably ceaspitum/immigrans, one or the other. 

[NotAxo]

The queen resembles a C. vitiosus, but I'm not entirely certain. She looks very similar to the one I have.

[IdioticMouse26]

Hey everyone, sorry for not uploading for some time. I was at Jeju island for a few days. It's really a wonderful place, full of nature and of course, ants. Unfortunatly, I wasn't able to take as much pictures as I thought I would of the critters there. I was only able to take picture of two different ant species, sorry about that. 

 

Euponera pilosior(I think)

(sorry for the bad positioning, it was the best I could find)

 

Ochetellus glaber (I'm guessing here)

 

A bush cricket.

It bit my hand when I caught it. I nearly dropped it because of that.

 

A cute little beetle. These guys are everywhere.

 

A large Asian long-horned beetle.

They can get pretty big.

 

A lady beetle?

It doesn't really look like one.

 

And finally... A big cool-looking spider.

I found this bad boy at night when I was looking for rhinocerous beetles, didn't find any, sadly.

 

 

Thanks y'all for reading! Please feel free to correct or suggest the names of the species in this blog. By the way, are you guys ok with me uploading more about any insects I find or should this be only about ants?